


The price of you

by GabrlReys



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M, Mild Language, Slow Burn, Who knows who else will show up - Freeform, check chapter notes for more specific tags, really slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2020-02-26 14:58:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18719395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GabrlReys/pseuds/GabrlReys
Summary: Kim Junmyeon has always been one slippery criminal wanted by countries all around the world. A few months ago, Interpol decided to take it upon themselves to see to the fact that the world’s most wanted thief serves their jail time in his hometown Seoul, South Korea. Ever since Junmyeon (or more commonly known as Suho on social media) started his criminal ways, he never thought he would be caught and tends to brag about his heists online through livestreams and vlogs uploaded on YouTube. All that changed when he came face to face with a certain Interpol rookie detective, Kim Minseok





	1. Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first fic for Exo (and the first fic i've written in years :( ) I hope you like it! The first few chapters mainly focuses on Minseok but Junmyeon will make an appearance soon... I hope ... If it sucks, straight up murder me! For those who have been waiting for this to be finally posted, I am so sorry for the wait!

 

The once caramel brown box that contained Minseok’s belongings from his previous workspace, now sat chucked away from sight, unopened. The box had barely anything written, save for the bold letters “Kim Minseok – Interpol detective, floor 8” neatly written at the side of the box. It hadn’t moved its position since it was first placed on the floor by the door two weeks ago, and Minseok’s assigned partner, Do Kyungsoo, was sure that it would stay that way for months to come. Minseok was by no means a messy nor unorganised person, but for a man who had been the first to arrive at the office the past two weeks since he took up this job, dressed in a neatly ironed shirt tucked into his well tapered pants; the sight of his office being an absolute train wreck would definitely shock anyone who walked past it.

The sleeves of Minseok’s white dress shirt were rolled up to his forearms while his black tie hung loosely around his neck, his shirt’s buttons popped low enough to get a glimpse of his chest. He had been leaning over the desk for more than an hour now, reading through different case files provided by the South Korean Police Department and trying to connect the dots to a case they had already solved. It puzzles Kyungsoo, as to why he would re-read case files when the perpetrator has already been handed over to the police. But that wasn’t the biggest concern that he had right now; it was the fact that his partner hasn’t eaten a bite of food since the day started, making the decision to dive straight into reading the case files while making notes.

“I hope,” Kyungsoo smiles, as he walks through the door holding a cup of coffee and food, “that you know the case you’re reading has already been solved. Or are you perhaps too sleep deprived to remember us handing him over to the police officials?” He chuckles, mainly to himself, as he slides the coffee and food over to Minseok who lets out a long sigh.

Minseok barely takes a glance at the man standing before him, before closing the files that he has been so religiously reading since the day started. He leaned back into his seat and closed his eyes momentarily while trying to reach out to grab his coffee. Kyungsoo’s hand, however, had managed to slap it away before Minseok could even grab the handle of the porcelain cup.

“Answer me first. You keep reading the files even though the case has already been solved. Why?” Kyungsoo eyes him curiously, though Minseok wasn’t very sure if it was curiosity or something else, with the blank expression that Kyungsoo always wore. Minseok hesitated before deciding that keeping his partner out of the loop wasn’t a very wise idea, considering the fact that he was still a rookie at his new workplace. He finally came to a decision that if he were to let anyone know about his creeping suspicions about the recently solved case, his partner should be that person.

“I- I just think that there’s something wrong about who we put behind bars.” Minseok started as he sat more upright in his seat. “Not only has this perpetrator been killing people in the Yang lineage for years, but even some criminals that were considered untouchable and in their prime back in the days. Just look, “ Minseok flipped through old case files and documents and pulled out a stack of photos, in which he shoved it into his partner’s hand.

“Choi Siwon, leader of the most notorious mafia in the early 2000’s. Used to be the biggest importer in South Korea that would bring in illegal drugs and weapons. He was considered the most protected criminal in Korean history, suddenly found dead in his house, murdered.” Minseok paused for a bit, glancing at his partner who still wore an unreadable expression.

“Next one being Bae Joo-Hyun,” He continued, “or more commonly known as Irene, leader of Red Velvet - assassins for hire gang. She too was mysteriously found dead in her bathtub. The groups all crumbled after their leaders were found dead, but what is more confusing was that there was originally no evidence found at the crime scenes. And now—“ Minseok vaguely gestured to the items sprawled across his desk labelled “Case #6709b evidence.”

“I think it’s weird that a man barely in his mid-twenties would commit a crime that has been going on for decades. It doesn’t add up, but the case files have some missing documents and I’m unable to conclude for this case. All I’m saying is that—“

“Minseok, look” Kyungsoo held his hand up, effectively silencing the older man. “I don’t think you should continue looking into this case anymore. It’s been solved and we caught the guy. Believe it or not, we have reliable footages and witnesses that points to this man being the murderer for all these cases. There’s no way these things can be fabricated, and you know it.”

“But I don’t think th—“

“Exactly, so stop looking for things that aren’t there. If you’re insinuating that the man we had put behind bars is a scapegoat for the actual culprit, it wouldn’t explain the heaps of evidence that serves as proof that he was the actual murderer, would it?” Kyungsoo’s eyebrows were now knitted together, his jaw visibly clenched.

His voice from the chipper tone he had barely a few moments ago, took a sudden change and adopted a more authoritative one. Goosebumps were starting to form on Minseok’s arm as Kyungsoo’s eyes were trained on him. The sudden tension that filled the air was thick as both men stared at each other from different sides of the large marble desk. Never has he seen Kyungsoo so caught up over what he said before. Minseok’s expressions mirrored Kyungsoo’s as he let out a soft _“Sorry?”_ He couldn’t believe what his partner had just said, and from what Minseok had mentioned alone, it should’ve convinced Kyungsoo to re-open the case but—

“Look… Minseok, I know you’re new here and you wanna prove something but just leave this case alone. Take it from someone who has been here for years. Re-looking at old files would just give you unnecessary stress, trust me alright?” Kyungsoo brushed off with a curt smile as he stood up from his seat, and ironed out the creases on his shirt before heading towards the door. Minseok watched as the younger man took large strides towards the door, hands fiddling with the hem of his coat. With his shoulders tensed, he walked with heavy steps, creating a soft thud every time his foot landed on the blue carpeted floors.

Do Kyungsoo wasn’t a man who often showcased his feelings to the rest of the world, or at least that was what Minseok believed from the two weeks they had been working together. He always wore a poker face while staring at everyone with cold unfeeling eyes. But this time though, Minseok swore that Kyungsoo’s eyes bore straight through him, watching every move and expression Minseok showed.

“I hope,” Kyungsoo paused while turning his cleanly shaven head, enough to catch a glimpse of Minseok from the corner of his eye,”you take my advice on this one and drop the research. It’s been solved and I’d rather you focus your energy on something more productive” His voice had dropped a few octaves lower, and Minseok almost missed it if it weren’t for the pin drop silence in the room. “We wouldn’t want you messing up before your one month mark working here.”

Kyungsoo, while on his way out of their shared office space fished out a pack of cigarettes, and started to ignite one with a lighter from his coat pocket. “Now that you will leave the case alone, maybe start unpacking your stuff and get a good night’s rest; I heard the Heads will give us a new case to solve tomorrow. We need all the brains we can get on this one, and I heard you’re the smart type. Goodnight, Rookie.” His partner took a drag from his cigarette and marched out of their shared office space, slamming the door behind him.

'The air, that was now mixed with smoke, stilled as the blinds covering the nearby windows rattled by the sheer force of the slam. Minseok let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding, and slowly massaged his temples with his left thumb and pointer finger.

_What?_

'Minseok couldn’t wrap his head around what had just happened between his partner and him, it didn’t make sense as to why Kyungsoo was so unwilling to listen to him. The way he was so dismissive and brushed off whatever Minseok had raised, irked him quite a bit. But who was he to say anything when his partner was technically one of his bosses?

_But I was so sure that the guy was accused of something he didn’t do. It didn’t make sense either as to why he was only targeting the Yang lineage and top criminals. What could be the grudge so big that it would cause the murderer to kill off an entire group of people?_

Minseok rubbed the back of his neck and finally sank into his armchair for the second time that day, turning it to face the large glass windows that were positioned right next to his desk. Every inch of his body was hurting from being strained too much over the past two days. He had been so invested in looking over the files and documents while his colleagues were out celebrating another successful case solved. This was the only thing that plagued his mind and he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

As much as the conversation with Kyungsoo didn’t sit well with him, he decided to push the thoughts aside and blamed it on the fact that he was not only sleep deprived but also indeed poking his nose into information that held no significance to the already solved case.

He immediately stood up from his seat, which caused his back to crack, eliciting a groan from him. His eyes were now red from staring at the files all day, eyelids barely open due to exhaustion. He ran his fingers through his tousled hair and slowly dragged himself towards the box he has yet to open since day one. As his fingers swept across the surface of the box, he felt a layer of dust settle on his fingertips which made him cringe a little. Minseok never liked dust nor untidy places, always feeling the need to keep his environment clean and hygienic. He quickly wiped the grime off his fingers and slowly stood up from his already crouching position, stomach grumbling as if on cue. 

He took a quick glance at his watch which indicated it was way past office hours,  _9.45pm_ and he has yet to grab a bite of food today. He shifted his gaze to look up at the night sky, which admittedly, looked like a beautiful backdrop behind his large office desk. The lights from the high rise buildings and the stars complimented each other so well, bringing a sense of tranquility to anyone who looked at it long enough. Minseok silently thought to himself about how different things were here compared to when he was back in his hometown, while walking towards his desk.

_You never really know what others are thinking, huh?_

He slowly started collecting his items and made his way to the door, reminding himself to eat whatever it was Kyungsoo bought for him before heading to bed. Interpol was definitely different from his previous workplaces, and he figured that whatever he previously applied couldn't be done around here. As his fingers made contact with the cool metal doorknob, he sighed and silently hope that tomorrow wouldn’t bring the same fate as it did today. He couldn’t bear the thought of leaving a negative impression, especially on someone he was stuck working with for the years to come. And with that, he turned off the lights and locked the office door.


	2. Suho

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On an extremely unrelated note, I was today years old when I found out that the plural of fish is both fishes and fish. Anyway,,, have this

Minseok tried his best to conceal the frown he wore as he entered his well lighted office, seeing that his items from the now missing box have been neatly arranged for him on his desk. He was pleasantly surprised though, to say the least, that the office was definitely much neater than he had left it last night. His dull old case files that he was so invested in the past few days, were now replaced with brand new ones that, surprisingly, were twice the size of the previous stack.

_It seems like Kyungsoo wasn’t lying when he said that he needed all the help for this one._

Minseok carefully studied everything in the room, taking into account whether all his items were placed in their respective places with care. It confused him, as to who would do such a thing for him, when he was sure that he was the first person to arrive at the office. He barely saw anyone on his way up, and made sure that his office was locked just as he left last night. So who could have-

“Good morning Minseok, I’m glad to see you all rested.” A monotonous voice broke his train of thoughts. “I hope you aren’t bothered by the fact that I took care of your stuff for you. I was wondering if I should leave you to it, but after reminding you to unpack yesterday, I doubt you would do it any time soon.” The source merely chuckled.

Kyungsoo sauntered into the room, dressed as he were the day before, in a tight fitting suit and pants, but this time, in grey. His sparkling new Rolex watch had reflected the sunlight into Minseok’s eyes, which evidently, made him jerk back a little. Kyungsoo gently patted Minseok’s arm, smirking, before moving over to the other side of the desk. The coffee that Kyungsoo brought in, was neatly placed at the top right hand corner of the desk, steam piping through the small gap on the lid. This time, Minseok’s stomach didn’t growl like it usually did, since he remembered to take his breakfast unlike the past few days.

“I arrived early today because I was asked to drop by for a quick briefing from the Heads, pertaining the new case. They unfortunately had to rush off for a last minute meeting and it was all so sudden, we didn’t have time to inform you.” Kyungsoo shrugged as he started flipping through the files. “Anyway, you’re here now, and that’s all that matters. Here, have a seat” Kyungsoo guestered to the leather armchair next to him, “you might want to pay attention for this one, he’s a pretty slippery criminal.”

Minseok dragged the armchair out from his position and settled in as fast as he could, leaning over the desk to get a peak of the files they were about to look through.

“We have a possible lead on a criminal we have been looking for the past few years. I’m very certain you have heard of him.” Kyungsoo slid the file over, showing an evidently old mugshot of the criminal they were tasked to take down. The picture was fading, corners a little torn and worn out. The colours of the picture were starting to dull but it didn’t change the fact that the criminal was _absolutely breathtaking_. His cheshire smile, pearly white teeth, brownish hair (though he couldn’t exactly tell what shade) that parted right in the middle and fell just above his eyebrows, the pinkish tint to his lips; he did not look like a criminal _at all_.

“Minseok?” Kyungsoo cleared his throat, albeit awkwardly, “Are you with me?” “Oh uh yeah, yes I’m um listening.” Minseok stammered out as his cheeks started to turn pink, embarrassed he had been caught staring. He just couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that this man, so young and _oh so handsome_ , had a case file thicker than anything Minseok had ever seen in his life. _This was probably what everyone thought when they found out Ted Bundy was a serial killer_ , Minseok scoffed.

“Good,” Kyungsoo continued, “back to where I was, Kim Junmyeon, or more commonly known as Suho on social media, is active once again. And we believe his next target would be the Louvre Museum. Just take a look,” Kyungsoo searched through the heaps of files all sprawled out on the desk, spreading the dust that was once settled on the files, across the room. He ruffled through the pages and documents before finally fishing out a series of screenshots and posts on several social media platforms hinting his next destination. “We always knew that Suho had an interest in art, especially in Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Starry Night piece and Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. He has been talking about it on his live streams for months now. We have been analysing all his social media accounts for a good few weeks, and it seems like our perpetrator here is thinking of getting his hands on the well known Mona Lisa painting.”

“Wait, what do you mean by “Talking about it on live streams” ?” Minseok’s eyebrows furrowed the second time that day as he looked at his partner with complete confusion. “This criminal live streams about his life?” He questioned, clearly baffled by the nerve of this criminal they were discussing about. He glanced at the mugshot once again, only realising that it wasn’t actually a mugshot. Kim Junmyeon was smiling while holding a board that had “Seoul Police Department, 00001, 09 10 15” neatly printed, with fine printed words at the bottom stating “I doubt you can catch me,so here’s a gift for you to keep”, that he almost missed if he wasn’t looking hard enough. _Did he freaking send this picture to serve as a mugshot? The nerve of this man!_

“Are you being serious right now?” Kyungsoo raised his eyebrow as he stared at Minseok in disbelief. After staring at Minseok’s bewildered look for more than half a minute, Kyungsoo came to a conclusion that perhaps his partner was not joking around. “Well, since you have no clue who this man is, I feel it’s safe to assume you do not possess any social media accounts?” Kyungsoo chuckled, “Why are you acting like such an old man? You’re barely a few years older than me.”

Minseok shrugged, deciding not to take than as an insult, but simply a jab about not being active on online platforms. “I just don’t have time for it, that’s all.”

Kyungsoo merely nodded as he started his explanation,”To start things off, Kim Junmyeon is an internationally wanted thief, going by the name Suho on social media. He is of korean descent, twenty nine years old and about five foot six in height. He only started his criminal ways a few years back, but he was by no means a rookie thief. His first heist itself was a huge one, accumulating up five billion won stolen, as well as private documents of multiple korean multimillionaires from the Korean Embassy in San Francisco. He is extremely intelligent and sharp, and frankly, quite annoying.” Kyungsoo sighed, “He has been a pain in our asses every time he decides to show and cause trouble. We are hoping we can catch him once and for all, now that we have analysed his possible next destination. This man, I doubt is by any means physically dangerous but he is definitely well connected to the criminal underworld of Korea. We believe he does the dirty work for multiple mafia leaders and criminals. To catch him this time, we have to really be on our toes.”

Minseok’s eyes were now on Kyungsoo, looking straight at him. Creases were forming on Kyungsoo’s forehead, creating a stark contrast against his dewy tanned clear skin. It was clear that he was both frustrated and restless over this case, indicating it must’ve been quite a criminal to get the Interpol officers all so caught up over him.

“What do you propose we do?” Minseok questioned, glancing at the files. “To catch a man _like that_ , there surely must be one hell of a plan.”

Kyungsoo sat back in his chair and crossed his legs, barely looking Minseok before answering, “How about you tell me what we should do? I’d like to see what fresh ideas you’d bring, since our past attempts have all been clearly futile. Maybe you’d have something worth trying out, it may work this time.” He crossed his arms over his chest, sinking deeper into the leather chair. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed Minseok a file that was approximately two inches thick, titled “Kim Junmyeon, Failed Mission Reports”

Minseok then leaned forward and rested his elbows on the cool marble table, fingers intertwined as he stared at the documents before him. He picked one up and skimmed through them, fingers furiously flipping through the pages, which started creating small dents and folds on the paper. The room was generally silent, save for the occasional flipping and creaking of the chairs. The gradual sound of the officers chattering outside in the common area indicated the arrival of the other officers, and the soft ticking of the clock were soon starting to fill the room as Minseok continued studying the case files.

“Tried ambushing his home… Tried following him to his next destination...Tried going undercover… Tried tracking down family to get to him…”Minseok muttered under his breath as he read through each and every single report in the folder. As he started going through more and more pages, he felt that they tried almost every possible method to arrest him, and yet, Suho still manages to get away. He could tell that Suho had hardly anything to lose, no family, no friends nor any prized possessions that Interpol could possibly use against him in order to turn himself in. _It’s always the ones that go solo, that are the most dangerous,_ he thought.

Minseok thread his fingers through his hair, entirely focussed on trying to find a viable solution, that he didn’t notice Kyungsoo stand up from his seat and started pacing around the room. He took slow but heavy steps around the marble table, occasionally taking sips from his coffee. He was looking just as worked up as Minseok, with his dress shirt slightly untucked and creases forming on his suit jacket.

Clueless, Minseok looked up and glanced around the large white office, hoping to find any source of inspiration of what could possibly work. As his eyes raked through the shelves, it landed on one of his belongings, a DVD of the movie “Die Hard”, given to him as a present when his college roommates found out he was initially joining the police force.

“What about a- “He paused, trying to collect his thoughts after getting an idea, “What about a stakeout? Isn’t there a hotel just two roads down? Timhotel Le Louvre? We could monitor activities from there or even go undercover to patrol the historical landmark, Louvre Palace. Once we catch his movements in the museum's cctv, we start an ambush. He would have nowhere to run, and we take him in.” Minseok suggested, “This could work.”

Kyungsoo sat back in his seat in silence, processing the plan Minseok suggested, eyebrows knitted and deep in thought, His left hand was rested on his right arm as his right pointer finger rested in between his plump lips, eyes staring at the files before him. After a good minute of complete silence, Kyungsoo tapped his feet on the ground and smiled at Minseok.

“This could work” Kyungsoo repeated, eyebrows shooting up his forehead. He adjusted his position and sat up straighter, taking in a deep breath. “You’re right, this might just work out for us. The area around the Louvre Palace is constantly filled with tourists, we would fit right in.” He nodded at Minseok, acknowledging the suggestion the older man gave with a smile, “I’ll call for a meeting with the rest of the teams as well as the Chief of Paris Police Department. Your plan might just work out for us.” Kyungsoo immediately stood up from his seat and gathered his items hastily, trying to take all his belongings with him.

“I’ll see you in the meeting room in an hour, get ready to share your plan with the rest of the team members.” He rushed out of the office, creating quick thuds on the carpeted floor. As soon as he slammed the door shut behind him, Minseok was left with case files all over his desk, some of which even threatening to fall of the edge. He let out a soft sigh as he neatly gathered all but one and stacked them to the side, leaving aside files with Suho’s personal information. Since he had an hour to spare before the meeting begun, he decided to take the time to study the criminal carefully, taking note of his strengths and weaknesses as well as past techniques used to get away.

From what he had heard from Kyungsoo, he knew that this mission would be no easy feat, but if he was sure about one thing, it would the fact that he would try his absolute best to make this plan work.


	3. The meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Filler chapters before things start getting exciting :^)

The meeting room was almost three times the size of Minseok’s office, to say it was huge would be the biggest understatement Minseok has ever made. To put it simply, it was big enough to hold roughly thirty people comfortably.

 Officers and team leaders from various departments started filling in, all of which were holding hot drinks in their hands. Minseok, who was now standing at the front of the meeting room along with Kyungsoo, was nervously looking around the place, trying to ease the butterflies in his stomach. It wasn’t like he has never spoken to a large group of people before, but none of those people he spoke in front of held such high ranks. His fingers started fiddling with the sleeve of his suit coat, as he involuntarily grinded his teeth together. Minseok could feel beads of sweat start to form along his eyebrows and above his upper lip, feeling all too hot in a fully air conditioned room.

 The meeting room was well lit, but the harsh white lights gave Minseok the feeling like as if he was in a dentist’s office, which in turn did not help ease his discomfort. It was generally bare, save for the few stationery that laid across the office table and a large projector which connected to Minseok’s laptop, sitting at the far end of the room, ready to be switched on.

 “Stop it! I can practically hear you grind your teeth, it’s disgusting.” Kyungsoo angrily muttered, “You will do fine on this, trust me. I’ll do the introductions and you can start with your plans to take down Suho. Afterwards, there will be discussions between what can be improved. It’s not as bad as you think.”

 Minseok hesitantly nodded as he mentally made a note of how the meeting would run, preparing himself for the worst. He wanted to make a good impression and knew that this was his shot at being trusted amongst his colleagues. As soon as the clock struck nine o'clock, Kyungsoo began his meeting. Just as he started greeting everyone, the soft muttering amongst the officers slowly died down, attention turned to what he had to say.

 “Thank you all for coming down on such short notice, I know that you all have very busy schedules so I will try to keep this as short as possible. The infamous Suho is believed to make a move soon, a conclusion made by my team and I, after having monitored his online posts and live streams for the past few weeks. We have gotten multiple eyewitnesses claiming to have spotted him along the streets of Paris yesterday, so his next heist should be within the next few days. As you all know, he doesn’t stay in one place very long, so we are holding this meeting to discuss about possible approaches that could potentially take him down once and for all.” Kyungsoo briefed as he passed out files pertaining to the case, which included the details of the eyewitnesses and his social media posts.

 “I know we don’t have much to lead us to when and how he is going to carry out his heist, but allow me to introduce to you Kim Minseok, my department’s newest detective, to give you all a suggestion on how we could carry out this mission. Minseok.” Kyungsoo turned to Minseok and gave a curt nod before gently placing his hand on the other’s shoulder and led him to the front of the meeting table.

 Minseok’s eyes widened as all eyes were turned to him, the silence of the meeting room was deafening, and the looks of everyone’s anticipation on what he was going say made him ten times more nervous than he originally was. He clenched his fist slightly, in hopes to ease his uneasiness, and began.

 “Good morning everyone, as introduced, I am Kim Minseok, a new addition to Mr Doh’s department.” He turned and smiled at Kyungsoo, who was leading against the wall with arms crossed, not too far from where Minseok stood. “I have an idea that might just work, a few months ago, I went to Paris for a vacation and stayed at a hotel not too far from the Louvre Museum. We believe that is where our perpetrator might target next, since he is a known art lover- especially for having knack for the famous Mona Lisa. There are evidence showing he has been spotted in that area, so even if he hadn’t plan to rob the museum, it would definitely be somewhere within the vicinity,” he rattled off.

 Minseok stepped back from his position from the front of the meeting table, to the side while nervously clicking on a remote to turn on the projector. After some fiddling with the buttons, a small green light emitted from the projector, which made a small beep, indicating that it was finally switched on. The white light that shined onto the wall beside Minseok started showing a map of the Louvre Museum's surrounding buildings. “As mentioned earlier, this is the hotel,” His gaze shifted from the audience, as he used the laser at the tip of the remote, and circled the location of the hotel, “that we might be able to do a stakeout and monitor the cameras from here while the rest of us,” He paused, “survey the grounds closer to the museum itself.”

 “Once we get word from the group from the hotel that our guy is spotted, we go in, creating an ambush. He can only get out the way he went in, and we would be there, waiting for him.” Minseok paused as he surveyed the room, looking at each and everyone’s face as he gave his ideas.

 The room was slowly once again filled with quiet muttering, eyes that were on him, now turned to look at the faces beside them. All of them discussing about the potential of this plan and how it would pan out. Minseok turned his head to look at Kyungsoo, who in turn was looking right back at him. He vaguely guestered at Minseok to wait as the officers in the room make a decision. Minseok pursed his lips and nodded at the younger man, taking a step back to lean against the cool cement walls. He slowly started rubbing his palms together just as he felt it become clammy. From the corner of his eye, he could see Kyungsoo making his way over to where he was standing, hands tucked into his pockets.

 “Good job on the presentation, I honestly thought you’d pass out halfway, seeing how pale and fidgety you were getting. Don’t worry though, I doubt anyone else caught on to it unless they were staring just as hard as I was.” He whispered, “Just wait till they’re done discussing amongst one another, we’ll get their feedback soon.”

 Minseok nodded as he fished out his phone to look at his reflection, checking to see if he was indeed as pale as described. He stretched his neck a bit and loosened his tie, trying to get himself to relax once again, silently praying that this meeting would be over soon. As he tucked his phone back into his coat, a voice that came from the other end of the room spoke up.

 A man, who Minseok recognized as Kim Jongin- a team leader of Fugitive Investigation Support department, raised his voice. “This plan is feasible, seeing that we do have the resources and people to be able to carry this out. However, I just feel that it’s too short of a time frame to get everything ready and just in time for his heist. If we really wanted to make this work, we would have to leave-”

 "Tonight” Kyungsoo stepped in, slowly making his way to the front of the room, “You’re right, we would have to leave tonight. The time frame may not be as desired but how long have we been waiting for this chance to catch him? An opportunity like that doesn’t come everyday, does it? I advise that we get started on our preparations, and I will go settle the clearance of the plans.”

 Kyungsoo’s rationale had started a commotion within the meeting room, with everyone getting a bit frustrated at how little time they had to prepare for this stakeout. Annoyed, Kyungsoo spoke up again, “If any one of you have a better plan on taking him down, I advise you to speak up. But seeing there are none, this is the best shot we’ve got isn’t it?”

 The officers in the room all had disgruntled looks plastered on their faces, each one of them unhappy with the circumstance. _It was true though_ , Minseok thought to himself, _time is not on our side and nobody knows when an opportunity like this would show up again_.

 Kyungsoo walked up to Minseok and gently gripped his arm, leading him towards the door. “They might be very against it now, but they’ll come around soon. It’s a good plan anyway, and you should start getting prepared for the flight tonight. I’ll leave first to get the clearance and then I’ll come back and make a detailed plan with you, okay?”

 Minseok turned to look at Kyungsoo as he stepped out of the meeting room, and nodded. This was going to be his first actual mission at Interpol and he was extremely nervous for what was to come. A small part of him felt that he was not ready yet, but as Kyungsoo smiled and walked off in the direction of the Chief's office, he reminded himself he was posted to Interpol for a reason; and he was going to prove his worth of being here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it! There would be more appearances of side characters soon & if you want to see any specific person inside as a side character, let me know :^)


	4. Jongdae

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not dead nor did I abandon this fic. I just had 10 exams within the span of 3 months- sorry for that long hiatus :< Anyway, I'm back now. Enjoy~

Minseok had busied himself with case files while waiting for Kyungsoo to come back from his meeting. He had already started drafting possible plans and formations for the stakeout, carefully planning the number of people in each location. Each one of them, as detailed as the last, was carefully laid across his work desk. He figured that if Kyungsoo was going to take some time with the Heads, he might as well be productive and help out with planning how the heist would run. 

He was in the midst of jotting down notes, when Kyungsoo barged into the office, not bothering to knock on the door. The door slammed open, causing the blinds to shake, creating a loud rippling sound. He had a huge grin on his face, forming a perfect heart shape, and his eyes crinkling at the ends. 

“We’ve got clearance! We are moving out tonight, twenty three hundred hours kst. I’ve already informed the rest, so let’s get started on the plan! We’ll be briefing them on the way there, so we gotta be quick.” 

Kyungsoo rested his palms on the cool marble table and leaned over to see what Minseok was doing. Upon realising that he already had started drafting plans, Kyungsoo picked one of the documents up and started to read it. 

He stood at the front of the table, studying the plans carefully and picking another one up once he was done reading the first one. One by one, he finished through all the plans that Minseok had created in the short amount of time, and stared incredulously at him.  

“These- “ Kyungsoo’s eyes widened, “These plans are brilliant, Minseok. “I knew you were intelligent, but this- this is incredible. You’ve just saved us a whole lot of time.” Kyungsoo smiled as he patted Minseok’s back, nodding at the older man in approval. 

Minseok’s cheeks started to turn pinkish from embarrassment as he tried looking everywhere else around the room. His fingers rubbing against each other as he smiled bashfully. 

“Are you really getting embarrassed right now? Stop blushing, you’re making this really awkward for me!” Kyungsoo groaned as he placed the plans back on the marble table. 

“I can’t help it! I never really got recognition for my work, you complimenting my efforts makes me feel like I deserve being here.” 

“That’s because you do deserve the job here, we don’t give out positions to nobodys you know? You’re smart and hardworking, I’ve seen it, and we need people like you to make this place a little better. One criminal caught at a time.” 

Minseok fiddled with his pen nervously and nodded at Kyungsoo, “Thank you.”

“You better treasure it, I don’t say it all the time” Kyungsoo smiled, “as for your plans, I’ll review them again and will pick the most suitable one. You should probably head home soon to pack your equipment and bags. The others have already left about an hour ago, I suggest you do the same.” He looked at his watch and back at Minseok, “It’s almost noon and you’ll need all the rest you can get.” 

“What about you? Won’t you go back soon to pack your items too?” Minseok asked as he stood up, gathering his belongings and chucking them nicely into his black leather backpack. 

“Quit worrying about me, I will be fine. I’ll just finish this up and then head home, if that’s alright with you mother?” 

“I was just aski-”

“I expect to see you back at the office by ten thirty pm, our flight will be at eleven. Goodbye Minseok.” Kyungsoo smiled as he walked out of the office, completely disregarding what he was about to say. 

Minseok stood at his table with his items in hand, glancing at the huge brown clock that hung above his bookshelf. He thought about how the missions was going to pan out and whether his team was even able to take down the criminal at hand. He gently shook his head as he continued packing his documents into his bag, “It’ll turn out fine, I’m sure of it.”

\--

Minseok had just dug into his freshly made ramen, when his doorbell rang. He lifted his head, eyes on the door as he wondered who might show up at his place at this time. He took a quick glance at his phone and slowly got up from his seat, making little to no sound. Minseok hardly knew anyone in this part of the city, since he barely had the time to make friends with his new neighbours with all the work he has been swamped with. He didn’t remember inviting anyone over either, making him all the more puzzled as to who would be at his door. Being wary of the unknown visitor, he decided to make his movements towards the door quieter, as a safety precaution he took since he was younger. 

The doorbell rang a couple more times, the sound echoing through his bare living room. As he curiously walked towards the door, the ringing got more frantic, accompanied by a couple of knocks on his large wooden door. Whoever it was at his door, definitely didn’t like waiting. 

As he opened the door an inch, he spoke through the gap, “Who is it?” 

The door immediately got pushed forward, making Minseok stumble back a bit. “It’s me Hyung, what took you so long? Open this damn door.”

The person behind the door sounded very familiar to Minseok, however, he was unable to put down who exactly it was. He stepped away from behind the door and opened it for the person behind. 

“Minseok! I missed you buddy! I’m still annoyed at you for making me wait, you know? Look, I brought you a gift!” The man walked in, smiling at Minseok as he hastily removed his shoes and tossed it all over Minseok’s wooden floors. 

The man looked much younger than Minseok, and was a good foot taller too. He had jet black hair messily tucked under cap and wore glasses, that Minseok was certain was fake. The younger man had very broad shoulders, which was made even more prominent with the fitting grey cotton shirt he wore. 

Minseok took a quick peek at the present he received, only to realize it was a bright yellow poster with the words, “Live, Laugh, Love” written in neat cursive writing. Closing the bag once again, he looked at his visitor with an unimpressed expression. Trying to restrain himself from rolling his eyes, he thanked the other for the gift, and proceeded to close the door. 

Behind the first visitor, surprisingly though, were two other men, one slightly taller than the other. The taller of the remaining two giggled as he ran straight into Minseok’s arms, not caring if he kicked all of the shoes everywhere across the floor. “Hyung! I missed you so much!” The man yelled accidentally into Minseok’s ear, making him wince a bit while getting squished. 

“Baekhyun hyung, look at what you’ve done! Our shoes are all over the floor thanks to your recklessness. And stop squeezing the life out of him, I came all the way here to hear about his new job, not to see him die in your hands.” The first man groaned, walking over to pry Baekhyun away from Minseok. 

“Don’t you miss him too, Sehun? How long has it been since we last saw him? A year?” Baekhyun whined.

“It has been barely six months, don’t be dramatic.” The taller of the three visitors, Sehun, turned to look at Minseok, “Hyung, we were here to help Jongdae settle in, and decided to stop by to see how you’ve been. Sorry for not informing you earlier, it was a last minute thing. We just really really missed you!” Sehun smiled as he went in for a hug. “I see you have settled in quite nicely huh?” He said as he looked at the unpacked boxes littered around his living room.

The last visitor walked in hesitantly, placing his shoes neatly by the door and slowly started picking up the other shoes that were sprawled all over the place. 

Minseok turned to look at his last visitor, back stiffening as his smile faltered for a mere second before smiling more brightly at him. “Jongdae? It’s good to see you again.” His eyes looked over at the man, who was crouching a few feet away. 

Jongdae visibly perked up when Minseok spoke to him, standing up after re-arranging all the shoes in their respective places. His hair was dyed to a warm hazelnut brown colour, falling just above his eyebrows and neatly combed sideways. He wore a tight black shirt with a leopard print jacket on top, smiling so sweetly at Minseok, it made his heart hurt. 

It felt weird to Minseok, to see his _ex boyfriend_ stand in the middle of his new apartment after he had left his hometown for a new job. It wasn’t like they had ended things badly, quite the opposite since they both knew they wanted very different things in life. The breakup was mutual, though Minseok knew that while he wasn’t in love with Jongdae the way he was a year ago, he couldn’t say the same for Jongdae. 

“It’s good to see you too, Minseok. I hope you’re doing well?” 

Jongdae still looked exactly as he did, the day Minseok decided to break off the relationship. 

“I am, and you?” 

“I’m doing well too.” Jongdae smiled as he took in his surroundings, “You haven’t changed one bit, haven’t you?”

Minseok glanced around the room, chuckling nervously, “You know me, practically married to my job.” 

Sehun pranced towards Jongdae and slapped his hand onto the shorter man’s back, “Jongdae just moved to this neighbourhood actually, isn’t that right, Hyung?”

Baekhyun dashed between the three of them in excitement, “yeah Hyung! Jongdae is opening his very own art exhibition not too far from here! We came here to support his opening night next week, and you should stop by too!”  

“Baekhyun, he’s probably bu-” Jongdae started. 

“I’ll come.” 

Jongae shifted his gaze from Baekhyun to Minseok, eyes widening in surprise, with a small hint of a smile forming. 

Minseok turned to look at Baekhyun again and shrugged, “I’ll come, it’s no big deal, just give me the details and I’ll be there. Besides, I know how much this means to you.” 

Minseok and Jongdae both shared a smile, and Minseok couldn’t help but think, _what if things were different?_

“Great! Now that we’ve got that out of the way, Hyung come join us for lunch at this place we saw on the way here. It’ll be a good change from all the ramen you’ve probably been consuming these past few months.” Sehun ushered everyone out the door, before quickly heading back to the kitchen to dispose Minsoek’s unfinished meal. 

“Hey! I really liked that…” Minseok pouted

“I pray for your health every night and this is what you’re up to? Now hurry, I’m starving and I want to hear all about that exciting new job position you’ve got.”

\-- 

Minseok shook off the thoughts on what happened within the past twelve hours as he boarded the private plane at exactly eleven pm. With each step towards the entrance, he knew that this mission he was on was more important than anything he has ever done in his life. However, no matter how much he knew it was best not to get distracted, he couldn’t seem to shake off the thoughts of his meeting with his ex boyfriend a few hours prior. 

He glanced around the plane, noting how everyone did not even look the slightest bit fazed over the fact that they were about to take down an internationally wanted criminal in a few hours. Sure, some may have already been on this international manhunt more times than he could count, but for some reason, Minseok was sure they would get it right this time. 

As the engines of the plane started, Kyungsoo ordered everyone to gather around as he began his briefing, “Change of plans team, intel tells us that Suho has been seen making arrangements with a couple of people who work for private transportation companies. It’s believed he will strike just before the museum opens and make an escape immediately afterwards. This means that once we touchdown, we have a small window period to get ready for an ambush. So I want all of you to listen very very closely on what we are about to do.”


	5. "kimjuncotton just went live"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We delve a little more into Minseok's past relationship! Somehow I managed to finish this chapter in record time. 
> 
> Note:   
> \-- represents a time skip of sorts  
> ** represents start/end of a memory

Minseok fiddled with his phone moments after Kyungsoo finished his briefing. The rhythmic tapping of his phone against his palm was helping him ease his mind of the nervousness he felt towards the mission. Kyungsoo, during the briefing, had mentioned a change of plans, and frankly Minseok wasn’t sure if he had enough time to pull this one off. 

In a nutshell, they were to immediately set up their ambush upon touchdown, meaning to say they would have to ready their equipment hours prior during the flight. The idea of having such a small window period to be ready, did not sit quite well with Minseok, and he had no idea how to ease his current state of mind. 

He then looked down onto his phone and decided to take a short break by going through Instagram. He recently had downloaded it, to keep a closer eye on Suho’s possible whereabouts. However, after his friends had found out about his newly made account, they all urged him to follow them back and post some pictures of his own. He was hesitant at first, being a generally private person, posting pictures of himself felt like a foriegn concept to him. He never really understood why people would like to share about what goes on in their private life, especially after being assigned to Suho’s case,  _ but to each their own _ , he thought. 

_ ** _

_ “I can’t believe you finally have Instagram, Hyung! What made you suddenly want to have an account?” Baekhyun eyed him curiously.  _

_ “Oh, you know, I just wanted to see what all of you were up to. I missed you all so much!” Minseok replied easily, grinning from ear to ear.  _

_ “Great! Now you can finally follow me, I’m so close to reaching my eleven thousand follower mark, Hyung!” _

_ “Yeah- And I don’t even know why you have that many followers, seeing that all you post about is Vivi and your face being covered by your phone.”  _

_ Minseok merely chuckled at the sight of Baekhyun and Sehun bickering amongst each other, before passing his phone over to his friends; all of which excitedly waiting to get a new follower on the social media platform.  _

_ “There! Now you won’t have to miss a single update from us, Hyung. We promise to post pictures every day for you, and we take pretty artistic shots.” Baekhyun laughed heartily, nudging Sehun’s shoulder.  _

_ “Baekhyun, your photos aren’t even half as nice as Jongdae’s paintings. Hyung, don’t waste your time on Baekhyun’s profile, look at Jongdae’s one to see real art.” Sehun scoffed.  _

_ “Well...That much is true, but I do know my photos are better than yours. Unlike you, I show my face!” _

_ “Jongdae-” Minseok spoke up, “You still- Do you still do paintings now?” He internally cringed at how awkward he sounded as he spoke, mentally berating himself to not make a huge issue over having one meal with his friends and ex.  _

_ “Hyung… Jongdae is a painter? Don’t you remember?” Baekhyun looked as if he was half surprised half amused.  _

_ “Oh- I meant if he still did- umm… them now?” Minseok was stumbling over his words, making a complete fool of himself. How could he have forgotten? Of course Jongdae was still a painter! _

_ “I still do. The paintings I mean. I still paint them.” Jongdae smiled at Minseok, nodding slightly, almost as an indication that it was okay. “I can show them to you if you want, I’ve posted all my latest works, as well as sneak peaks of the exhibition works on my account.”  _

_ ** _

Minseok absentmindedly decided to look through Jongdae’s Instagram page, curious about what he has been up to in the past couple of months. He scrolled through the countless photos of paintings Jongdae did, each one as beautiful as the last. As he went through the profile, he stopped at a certain painting that Jongdae did for their second year anniversary. Minseok smiled as he remembered how Jongdae tried so hard to hide the painting from Minseok, making him run so many odd errands for him to buy himself time to paint. 

**

_ “Jongdae! Have you seen my-” Minseok asked as he frantically looked around his shared apartment for his favourite navy blue tie. The whole house was practically turned upside down, with Minseok looking at every nook and cranny in their shared apartment.  _

_ “Your tie?” At the end of the hall was Jongdae, dressed in one of Minseok’s old grey shirts and comfortable sleeping shorts, all of which were covered with patches of paint.   _

_ Minseok looked up from under the table, at the sight of Jongdae holding up his tie in one hand and his paintbrushes in another. Taking the tie from his boyfriend, Minseok wobbled as he tried to get back up on his feet.  _

_ “You should really be careful with where you put your items, your tie nearly fell onto my painting” Jongdae huffed, carefully tying the navy blue tie onto Minseok’s collar, tightening the knot just the way he liked it.  _

_ “I’m so lucky that I have my darling boyfriend to help me locate my items, aren’t it?” Minseok chuckled as he leaned forward and kissed Jongdae, tasting the hints of chamomile tea that his boyfriend drank with him while having breakfast. “Thank you.” _

_ Jongdae’s cheeks were instantly crimson, all the way down to his neck. The way Minseok always kissed him without warning always caught him off-guard, causing him to instantly blush. “You better go soon or you’ll be late.” Jongdae smiled, “You’ll be back for dinner, right?”  _

_ “How about we go for a date tonight? It is our second anniversary tonight, and you can show me that painting of us you’ve been working on for weeks, while I give you a surprise of my own.” Minseok intertwined his fingers with Jongdae, walking backwards towards the door. “You’re bad at surprises you know?” _

_ “Y- You saw it?” _

_ “Mhmm, and I love it. Thank you Jongdae, you’re really the world’s best boyfriend.” He leaned forward again and kissed Jongdae once more before walking through the door. “See you at eight pm, dear!”  _

**

As Minseok stared blankly at his phone screen, he thought about how their relationship, though messy at times, was something he missed greatly. However, as Minseok rose through the ranks, and was given the option of being posted to South Korea’s Interpol Headquarters, he was given an ultimatum. It was either leave Jongdae behind or decline the job in Seoul. And though it was a tough decision, Minseok knew deep in his heart that he didn’t feel the same for Jongdae, and the feelings for him were no longer mutual. To avoid breaking his heart more by continuing the relationship, Minseok took up the Interpol job offer.  

He gently shook his head and sighed, mainly to himself, remembering that this wasn’t exactly the perfect time to be nostalgic about past relationships. He leaned back against the somewhat comfortable plane seat, slowly closing his eyes in hopes to get some rest before the preparations started. 

A sudden vibration from his phone, however, broke Minseok out of his gentle slumber. As he glanced down at the screen, he noticed a small pop-up notification on the top panel, indicating someone had just went live on Instagram. 

Or more specifically, Instagram user  _ Kimjuncotton _ had just gone live. 

Minseok accidentally threw his phone in the air as he realized who it was, fingers trembling as he quickly tried to get a hold of himself and click Suho’s icon to watch his live. His heart was literally thumping against his ribcage, absolutely shaking at how perfect the timing was to go live.

_ Oh my god? What a freaking coincidence? Just as we are about to chase him down, he goes live? Let’s see what he has to say, and if it any information about his heist later.  _

Minseok’s screen at first was entirely black, with soft rustling sound in the background, followed by a bright light that shone directly into the camera. 

_ It’s Suho- _

Suho’s face finally came into view as he tried to read the comments section of his live, pausing a bit before he started speaking. 

“Hel- Shit,” The screen went black for a moment before Suho’s face was seen once again, “accidentally dropped the phone, sorry” he confessed bashfully. 

“Anyway, hello everyone! It has been quite a while since I did this, isn’t it? I had some time on my hands tonight, before I’ll be doing something quite big later.” Suho smirked, staring straight into the camera, “And if there’s any cops watching me right now, I promise it’s not anything illegal, I’m just taking a vacation.” 

Minseok rolled his eyes at the statement, internally scoffing at how cheeky he was being in front of thousands of viewers. As Suho rambled on about his day, which made Minseok incredibly bored, he decided to pay attention to the smaller details of the live video. 

Suho was leaning against a bare white wall, his arm resting against his knee, staring straight into the camera as he spoke. His hair was now wavy with streaks of light brown, parting perfectly in the middle, with his fringe curling just before his eyebrows. His hair somehow looked more poofy than the mugshot he had sent in, and was undeniably more unkempt than before, no doubt from all the tousling he did throughout his live.  

_ It seems like he’s in some sort of… Warehouse? There isn’t much sounds in the background, so it must be somewhere rather far out from the city.  _ Minseok concluded, noting the details in his little green notebook that he carries around everywhere. 

_ He doesn’t even seem dressed for the heist,  _ he observed, seeing the casual grey sweater and a light blue scarf that he had around his neck. Though the outfit, on anyone else, would look like a mess, Minseok was surprised at how Suho somehow made the clothes look well put together. 

As Suho was still narrating how his day went, his smile became bigger whilst his eyes became smaller- turning into a perfect crescent moon shape. Minseok was still bugged about the fact that a criminal  _ that  _ notorious, could look  _ so damn attractive. _

“Okay! That about sums up my day in Paris, and seeing that I still have a little more time here, would anyone like to ask any burning questions they have for me? Like my skincare routine, or perhaps how am I so strikingly handsome?” 

The comments were immediately increased by tenfold, with so many viewers asking about his relationship status, where he was at the moment, or even requests to say a certain phrase for the audience. Minseok’s phone was starting to become slower due to the vast amount of comments coming in, as well as the poor internet on the plane. 

Minseok was shocked that people treated this man like some type of A lister celebrity, and was gaining  _ fans? _ He couldn’t wrap his head around the thought of someone being a fan of an internationally wanted criminal, but yet again Minseok reminded himself,  _ this is like that Ted Bundy thing all over again.  _

Throughout the whole question and answer segment of the live, he noticed that Suho was being very selective with which questions he were to answer, which was a surprise to no one. Minseok suddenly thought of a question, which he thought could possibly help with providing a lead if this mission were to fail, and quickly typed it out and pressed send. 

“Okay- Last question for the night, alright? From uhh “e underscore xiu underscore o”? They ask “Have you ever been in love?” Funny you should ask mister? ee-xiu-oh.“ He mentioned as his eyes squinted to look at his screen, possibly looking at Minseok’s Instagram icon. 

“I would personally say I have been in love? It was a long time ago, back when I was like thirteen? He- and yes he, was absolutely caring and sweet towards me. We were classmates since we started school, all the way up until the point I got adopted and left the orphanage. Pity I haven’t seen him since.” Suho smiled at the memory, head lopsided towards the right. All before immediately straightening up, eyes suddenly widening upon realization he had said too much about himself.

_ Orphanage?  _ Minseok thought,  _ no wonder we could barely find any information about his family and upbringing… _

As Suho abruptly ended the live, Minseok heard a soft “ _Shit-_ _that idiot”_ , coming from the furthest corner of the plane, right from the last row. 

_ What was that? _

Minseok stood up from his seat, turning to look at the source of the hushed voice, when he was abruptly pushed back into his seat. 

“Sorry about that! Need to make a run to the toilet!” His colleague exclaimed as he ran down the aisle, shoes softly tapping against the plane’s carpeted floors. 

When Minseok turned to look for anyone at the last row of the plane, his eyes did not seem to find anyone around that area. Puzzled, he started walking towards the seats, when Kyungsoo from the end of the aisle, next to the seats, called out to him. 

“Can’t sleep huh? Me neither. ” He asked, amused. “I don’t know much about you, but you seem like a lightweight. Have a drink to ease the nerves and it’ll put you right to sleep.” Kyungsoo suggested, handing Minseok a glass of champagne. 

“I-uh thanks?” 

“Better drink it quick, you’ll need all the energy to ambush after this one.” Kyungsoo sipped on his own glass, settling down in his seat, trying to get it as comfortable as he can. 

With that being said, Minseok walked back to his own seat once more, more confused than he was earlier. He shrugged off the soft comment he heard earlier as something that was said as a mere coincidence that just happened to coincide with what Suho had revealed about himself. He felt his eyes getting heavier as he leaned further into the uncomfortable plane set. Sure, it may have been somewhat like a first class setting, but that did not disregard the fact that the seat was  _ so damn stiff.  _

After closing his eyes for a while, Minseok found himself drifting off yet again into a gentle slumber. 


	6. Kim Minseok?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Some language, scenes with strangulation/choking (not the fun kind), Junmyeon says something vaguely sexual.

Paris was every bit as beautiful as Minseok imagined, bringing him back to when he had his vacation here a couple months ago. The cool early morning breeze made him feel more refreshed than ever, and despite the circumstances he had arrived here, he still felt relaxed and at peace. His shoulders relaxed while he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He could feel the tension in his body oozing out of him and he allowed himself to relax after the hectic preparations he had to go through for this mission, not to mention the twelve hour long flight to get here. Kyungsoo stepped out of the plane, carrying two gym bags in his hands, one being his and the other being Minseok’s. 

“Such a beautiful place, it’s a pity we’ve arrived here for work.” Kyungsoo sighed as he passed Minseok’s bag over to him. 

“It really is, but look at it this way, once we’ve caught Suho, you can take a vacation. You’ve definitely earned it, planning an overseas ambush in a short time span really deserves a break.” The cool wind gently blows through Minseok’s hair, and he smiles tiredly at Kyungsoo. 

“Come on now, we’ve got work to do.” Kyungsoo sighed, mainly to himself before turning to the teams, “I want everyone to quickly board the buses, we’re to be deployed effective immediately.” 

\--

Everyone was gathered around Kyungsoo, all set and listening to his final briefing before separating out to their respective entrances and exits of the place. The teams were all silent, straining to listen to the sound of Kyungsoo’s hushed voice against the loud rustling of trees and leaves in the background. 

“Once we get intel from our surveillance team that Suho is in the building, we charge in. I want everyone to cover the parameters of the Louvre Museum, **_now_**.” Kyungsoo barks out orders to his team, hand resting on his taser gun, “and remember, if you see him, click the buttons we’ve provided. It will send the back up team your location and we will come to assist immediately. **_Do not_** engage with the target, he’s hostile and we don’t know what he’s capable of. Do I make myself clear?” 

Minseok and his assigned team members nodded and jogged up to block the Porte des Lions. The night was starting to get cooler, and Minseok was for once, glad for the heavy uniform he had on. The orange street lights that illuminate the walkways, somehow managed to accentuate the beauty of the place. The museum’s architecture stood out against the dark night sky and being surrounded by the warm street lights, made the place seem so peaceful and equally breathtaking. At that very moment, Minseok wished nothing more than to wander through the streets, taking in the cool fresh air. 

“Minseok,” Kyungsoo’s distinctive voice was heard from the standard issued earpiece, “Minseok, can you hear me?” 

“Yeah, I can.” He replied, adjusting the earbud deeper into his ear. 

“Good, I want you to pay close attention to your side of the museum, the surveillance team have just informed that there is actually a staff exit somewhere in that area. I need you to just keep an eye out for anything suspicious.”

As soon as Minseok opened his mouth to reply, Kyungsoo boomed through everyone’s intercom, “Suspect is seen in the building, I repeat, our suspect is in the building. I want everyone to ambush him in the Peintures Italiennes section **_now_ ** ! It’s right next to the Winged Victory statue near the Roman section, **_go go go!_ **”

Minseok’s team leader signals for them to form up behind him, as they draw closer towards their assigned entrance. In a perfect straight line, Minseok was the right at the back of the seven men team, keeping an eye out for anything that may happen in their immediate vicinity. 

Just as his team sprints into the building towards the La Joconde Mona Lisa exhibition, Minseok, from his peripheral vision, spots something, or perhaps _someone_ , making a dash towards the Tuileries Garden. Though he was directly ordered by Kyungsoo to move in to the museum, he suspected the fact that the figure making a run for it, was either Suho or an accomplice. Either way, needed to be arrested. 

Minseok makes a run for it, dashing through the dead silent streets, trying to close the gap between him and the unknown figure. As he manages to get close to a hundred feet away from the suspect, he slows down and hides behind building pillars whilst keeping a close eye  on the person in front. He tries his best to soften his footsteps, deciding to tail the suspect while tiptoeing. He internally cursed at the fact that the standard issued shoes were extremely noisy at this moment, and even thought about taking off his shoes completely. 

Every time the suspect walked through a new alleyway, Minseok carefully followed behind, holding his breath as he turned to look around the corner. However, just as Minseok was just about to turn around the corner, he felt himself being pushed roughly against the cool brick walls that lined the streets. The impact made him fall flat on his butt, and upon realising that it was caused by the man he was after, he quickly got up and ran after him.

Minseok was by no means a track and field runner, but he has gained the speed and endurance to run short distances fast over the years, just by running after Sehun and his antics. While he was on the verge of giving up, he reminded himself that this was no time to slow down, since the gap between him and the suspicious man in front was starting to get smaller. That gave him enough motivation to push himself harder and faster, closing up the gap even more. 

Minseok’s speed visibly made the man in front panic, knowing he would soon be caught by Minseok. The suspect took a sharp turn into a poorly lit alleyway, between two imposing buildings, and unfortunately found himself caught in a dead end. 

Minseok was finally able to catch a break and started panting, with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. He heard the man rattle off a string of curses to himself, followed by a humourless laugh. “Guess the cops have finally caught me?” 

The man in the dark alleyway stood motionless, staring at the concrete wall before him, while his back faced Minseok. The area was poorly lit, save for the occasional flashes of light coming from nearby cars and apartments. The sounds from nearby drunk passersby bounced off the cool marble walls that lined the alleyway. It reeked of garbage and burnt out cigarette butts that were carelessly thrown all over the place. Minseok, with one hand holding onto his taser in his pocket, and a flashlight in the other, cautiously took an unsteady step towards the mysterious man. 

“Drop whatever it is that you’re holding and you’ll avoid getting tased.” Minseok demanded breathlessly, flashlight pointing at the man’s back. He took another step closer, grip tightening against his taser, ready to pull it out. The man, dressed in all black scoffed as he slowly brought his hands up behind his head. Minseok took this chance to quickly reach out to that small button Kyungsoo had passed him earlier, and pressed it. _Hopefully they’ll get the signal for backup_ , Minseok thought. This was by no means his first time taking down a perpetrator, but this was certainly his first time taking down an internationally wanted person. 

“Kneel on the floor,” Minseok instructed, voice wavering a bit, “and keep your hands behind your head.” 

The man let out a breathy laugh as he got on his knees, back still facing Minseok. “We’ve barely met, and you’re asking me to get on my knees already? How about dinner first, and _maybe_ we’ll get to that?” 

Minseok’s eyes widened, caught off guard, as he walked closer to the man, handcuffs ready in hand. _Seriously? This man is so god damn annoying, no wonder Kyungsoo was so frustrated over him._

Distracted by his own thoughts, Minseok didn’t notice how the man had turned around to kick him in the shin, effectively making him lose balance and fall on the hard cement floor. His taser flew out from his hand and slid across the cement floor, far from his reach. 

In the midst of trying to break his fall, Minseok tried turning his body so that he’d fall on his front instead. However, due to the slowness in reaction time, he fell on his right arm, effectively spraining his bicep. His left hand immediately went up to clutch his injured arm, groaning while turning to lie on his back. 

The man slowly stood up and walked towards him, shoes making a soft thud sound with each step on the cold cement floor. The shadow of his figure was slowly forming on the floor as he walked closer towards where Minseok landed. The orange streetlight dramatically illuminated his figure and strong built, as he stepped out of the darkness. 

“You’re more good looking than you sound” The man laughed as he hovered over Minseok, hands reaching up to take off his mask. “I’ve never seen someone so easily distracted, first time?” 

While unmasking himself, Minseok couldn’t help but muffle a small gasp he had let out involuntarily. The street lights shined perfectly on the stranger’s face, shadows making his jawline and cheekbones more prominent. His wavy hazelnut brown hair was sticking out all over the place, some of which stuck against his forehead that was covered in sweat. He was dressed in a tight fitting black turtleneck and long pants, hands protected by his black leather gloves. The man smirked as he crouched next to Minseok and tilted his head. _How is he more god damn attractive in real life?_  

“I’m sure you’ve probably heard of me,” the man spoke up again, positioning himself to sit on Minseok’s thighs as he moved to press his forearm against his throat, effectively making him stay in position. “I’m Junmyeon, and I haven’t seen you in Interpol before. New staff?” He smirked.

Minseok’s eyes widened as he writhed under Junmyeon’s weight against him, barely able to form the words, “I don’t care”

“Oh, you’re the defiant type huh? Do I have to teach you a lesson?” Junmyeon mocked, pressing his forearm harder against Minseok’s throat. 

“F-fuck you” He choked. 

Minseok’s voice was started to get more hoarse, with Junmyeon’s forearm choking him. He knew he had to do something to buy some time before backup came, and that included not passing out at that very moment. Junmyeon started ruffling through Minseok’s pockets on his uniform, removing all his items one by one. With each item he took out, he looked even more disinterested than the last, until he finally found something that resembled an identity card.  

“Hmm, what do we have here?” Junmyeon eyed Minseok’s Interpol card curiously, looking at the back on his lanyard first. “I guess if you’re so adamant on telling me who you are, I’ll just have to find it out myself then” 

He smirked at Minseok as he flipped the card holder over, eyes running over the text on Minseok’s ID. “Ki-Kim Minseok?”

Minseok looked up at Junmyeon, seeing his eyes widen the tenfold, staring at him with absolute horror, face falling. Without any time to think, Minseok leaned his head back to rest against the cool cement floor, before lifting it up faster to knock the perpetrator back. With his effective headbutt, it gave Minseok extra half a second to use his left elbow to stab into Junmyeon’s rib cage. The impact made Junmyeon fall off Minseok’s thigh and onto the ground, trying his best to get rid of the shock. 

Minseok stumbled as he stood up, lifting his foot to kick Junmyeon, not anticipating the moment when he caught Minseok’s foot and tugged it towards him. Minseok fell flat on his butt, and in an attempt of pulling his foot from Junmyeon’s grasp, Junmyeon lunged at him, making him fall backwards again. 

Junmyeon’s nose flared from anger, face turning crimson, jaws visibly clenched. His eyes were focused on Minseok, staring straight into his soul, with the look of pure absolute hatred. 

“You Interpol assholes never know when to stop huh? He’ll have my head if I don’t do this right. Wouldn’t _you_ know what it feels like to always be on the verge of death?” Junmyeon rasped into Minseok’s ear, his thumb and pointer finger digging just above Minseok’s collarbone. “I really wish I didn’t have to do this, but you’ve left me with no choice. It’s your fault, your fault!” 

Minseok was starting to gasp loudly for air as Junmyeon slowly started pushing his hand against his throat. He felt like his head was going to explode, which in turn, made him panic even more. 

As he fidgeted more forcefully under Junmyeon’s grasp, he felt the pressure on his throat suddenly release, making Minseok cough uncontrollably. He rolled sideways and continued his coughing fit, body trembling by the sheer force of his coughs. He was gasping loudly for air, when he started feeling a little light headed, swinging back and forth into consciousness.  

He could hear a faint panicked voice stuttering, “Oh god, oh god, shit. I- I am so so sorry, I didn’t mean to-, I was... you- I thought you were him for a moment”, coming from behind his limp body. But that wasn’t what he was trying to pay attention to at that exact moment. 

From the corner of Minseok’s eye, he could see flashes of blue light running along the street towards him, out of Junmyeon’s sight. He could tell that the rest of his team were on the way to his position, and Junmyeon would not be able to get away this time. 

With that comfort in mind, he felt content knowing that he managed to help his colleagues and Kyungsoo catch Junmyeon once and for all. And with that, he faded into darkness. 


	7. Hospital

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: None

Minseok woke up to a soft beeping sound, along with something that sounded vaguely like the television being turned on. There were hushed voices around him, and a faint alcohol swab like scent in the air. He couldn’t quite make out what the voices were talking about, but after a while he could hear the prominent sound of a door opening and closing. Without having to open his eyes, he figured that he was currently in the hospital; which definitely wouldn’t surprise him since he  _ did _ get into a little fight with Suho before he passed out. 

Speaking of which, _ Suho.  _

He wondered if the team managed to get to him just as he passed out, placing Suho behind bars once and for all. Minseok gently opened his eyes, trying to adapt to the harsh white lighting in his hospital ward, taking in his immediate surroundings. His eyes winced as he looked around, blinking rapidly as he woke up. His breathing was slow and deep, and for the first time in what felt like forever, he felt that he had finally gotten a good rest. 

As he looked around the ward, he noticed a figure slumped in a chair, in a fairly awkward position, next to him. They were all snuggled up in a hospital issued blanket, tucking their head downwards whilst resting on the tiny chair. Unable to recognize the person beside him, he decided to sit more upright, to get a better glance at them. However, in doing so, he felt his body was suddenly far too heavy for his wrists to support, and fell right back onto the bed. 

His small  _ oof  _ that he let out, had apparently woken the person up, in which sent them leaping to Minseok’s side, immediately holding his hand tightly. 

“Minseok? Minseok, are you alright?” He looked up towards the source of the strained voice,  realizing it was none other than Jongdae. He looked like he hadn’t slept in a while, with dark circles forming just below his tired eyes. His hair was messier than usual and his eyes were fixated on Minseok’s, looking for any signs of discomfort or distress. 

“Do you need anything? Water? Food?” Jongdae rattled off. 

‘Water please” Minseok croaked, trying once again to sit back up. This time though, with the help of Jongdae holding his right arm, leading him towards the back of the bed. 

Jongdae poured out a glass for Minseok and quickly passed it to him, sitting right back down in his seat afterwards. As Minseok drank the water, he glanced at the television, noticing a picture of Suho at the far right of the screen. The newscaster was mentioning how he had been finally put away for good, and that the officer that had put himself in harm’s way just to arrest him had been given a promotion. 

_ A promotion? _

Minseok’s eyebrows furrowed, while holding the empty glass of water against his lips. He looked back at Jongdae once again, who was looking right back at him with a sad smile. 

“You know, you shouldn’t have to catch this guy, at the expense of your health. I was so worried about you when I heard the news.” 

“How did you-” Minseok winced at the sharp pain at his throat. Jongdae immediately got up from his seat and gave him another cup of water to drink, in hopes to soothe the piercing pain Minseok was currently experiencing in his throat. 

He dug through his bag, searching for quite some time, before he yanked out a miniature whiteboard and a marker. He gently placed this on Minseok’s lap and pulled up a piece of tissue from Minseok’s bedside tissue box. 

“Use this instead, at least until the bruises littering your neck have healed.” Jongdae motioned, looking more concerned than he did before. 

Minseok raised his eyebrows again until Jongdae showed him a mirror, in which Minseok finally realised how absolutely  _ horrible _ he looked. His hair was sticking hair in every direction, his neck had a whole line of bruises, making it look like a really bad necklace. Just as he was writing on the whiteboard a question, the door slammed open, causing a loud bang against the hospital walls.

The people at the doorway, or more specifically,  _ Sehun and Baekhyun, _ looked like deers caught in the headlights. They were holding up multiple balloons each, all varying from different colours and sizes. Minseok managed to catch a glimpse of one of the balloons which had the words, “Get well soon, baby!” printed in bold, next to a barbie picture. 

“Sehun! You could’ve woken Minse- Oh Minseok, you’re awake.” Baekhyun jogged right next to the bed, clutching the bedrail whilst leaning forward to get a good look at him. “I wish I could say you’ve never looked worse, but I’m glad to see you okay!” 

Minseok rolled his eyes and he silently mouthed the words, “ass” to Baekhyun, before turning to Sehun. He, on the other hand, was religiously trying to tie up every balloon they had bought onto the bed rails as securely as he could. And as he finished tying up the last balloon, he smiled at the whole display before turning to look at his friend lying in bed. 

“I’m surprised you haven’t changed your next-of-kin details. Jongdae immediately got a call from your team leader as soon as you got admitted into here. It was lucky that we were all together when he received the call. How are you feeling, Hyung?” 

Minseok’s eyelids felt heavy, and he gave them a sleepy smile before showing a thumbs up. He looked back at Jongdae before scribbling out, “I’m sorry I worried all of you.”

Jongdae reached out to hold Minseok’s hand before replying,”It’s alright, you’ve always been a very reckless person huh.” Jongdae smiled at Minseok before looking at Baekhyun with a slight smirk on his face,“Plus, I’m glad I’m still your next of kin, they would’ve otherwise called Baekhyun, and knowing him, he would’ve freaked the hell out.” 

Minseok chuckled while leaning back, looking at all his friends talk amongst each other. He wondered what he had done to deserve friends that cared so deeply about him. He looked at the balloons hung around his bed one by one, noticing that some had rather odd designs and colours on them. The sight of all the balloons comforted him, the colours reminding him of both home and Jongdae’s art exhibition opening night. With that sudden memory, he quickly scribbled out on the board, “What date is it” before turning to show it to his friends.

“It’s October, Hyung”

Minseok’s eyes widened as he looked at Sehun in disbelief.  _ Did I really get knocked out for 3 months? _ He thought to himself.  _ What the fuck? _

Jongdae immediately rolled his eyes at Sehun’s answer, “Quit messing with him Sehun, it’s 1st August.” 

Minseok erased the board and quickly wrote out a question directed to Jongdae, “Isn’t your exhibition opening this week? You should g-”

Jongdae rested his hand on Minseok’s, effectively stopping him from writing. “Don’t worry about that, I just wanted to be here for you. You’re more important than any exhibition I hold” 

Minseok felt his face flush at the comment before nodding, leaning back against his bed once again. Jongdae has always been so nice to him ever since the break-up, but Minseok couldn’t find it in him to reciprocate the love that Jongdae was showering him with. It was then he understood why many had advised him not to befriend an old lover. He only looks at Jongdae as a friend now, nothing more and nothing less. However, he was sure that this truth would hurt him all over again. Something he wished to avoid at all cost, so he said nothing. 

Sehun, however, broke the silence by exclaiming in pure delight, which startled everyone in the room. “The toy that I wanted to buy Vivi has been restocked! Look! I just  _ know _ Vivi would absolutely  _ adore _ this toy!”

Sehun turned his phone to everyone, showing off a huge carrot squeaky toy with a huge grin on his face. “Vivi loves large toys, but all the popular ones keep getting sold out fast. I’m so happy I managed to get my hands on this one!” 

“Sehun, didn’t you just buy a whole box of toys for Vivi? What happened to those?” Baekhyun frowned.

Sehun’s face became visibly redder as he bashfully confessed, “Vivi didn’t like those, it scared him”

The rest of them laughed at that statement, before Sehun got out of his seat and elaborately acted out the whole scene of how Vivi responded to the new toys he got. Each story was funnier than the last, which had Minseok close to tears at how Sehun struggled to get Vivi to calm down. 

As the group of friends continued chatting amongst each other, the door opened once again, now with a nurse and Kyungsoo entering the room. They spoke to each other first, before turning to look at Minseok. 

“Minseok? How are you feeling? And what is...this?” He vaguely guestered to the balloons that were everywhere around his hospital bed. Minseok just pointed to his friends, before pointing back at his throat, signalling his slight inability to talk at the moment. 

“Ah- I see. What you did there, though very  _ very _ reckless, was admirable. But I do remember giving out orders to not engage the perpetrator, right?” Kyungsoo looked at Minseok straight in the eyes, “We were all worried about you, you know? I mean catching Suho is one thing, but I’d much rather have all my team members be safe over capturing Suho any day.”

Minseok glanced down at his fingers, fiddling at them awkwardly before moving to write on the whiteboard, “Sorry :( “

Kyungsoo chuckled at the sight of the board and gently rubbed Minseok’s shoulder, “Don’t worry about it, just listen to orders next time please? You have a two week leave granted for you, as well as a promotion once you come back. Like I said, though reckless, you certainly do have the courage to take on this man.” 

Minseok quickly scribbled on the whiteboard again, this time with a question for Kyungsoo. “Where’s Suho?”

Kyungsoo paused for a moment, before answering the question at hand. “I didn’t want to tell you this so soon, but since you asked…” He paused again, “Suho will be working with you and me in helping to take down other criminals. We are sure he has connections to others in the criminal empire, and with his help, we believe it would make the task of taking them down much easier. This is part of his sentence.”

Everyone else practically jumped out of their seats, exclaiming a loud “ _ what? _ ” in unison. The look of concern and confusion on everyone’s faces was enough to throw Kyungsoo off on what he was about to say next. 

“You can’t do that! Minseok nearly got  _ killed _ by that guy! This is so irresponsible of you!” Jongdae exclaimed, marching right up to Kyungsoo, “Look at what  _ that man  _ did to Minseok! What if he tries to straight up kill him again? Then what?” Jongdae’s eyes bore straight into Kyungsoo’s, and Minseok was a bit taken aback by his words to his superior. Never before had Minseok seen that side of Jongdae, being so outright rude and filled with anger. 

“Jongdae, it’s fine…” Minseok rasped. 

The two turned to look at Minseok before Kyungsoo finally spoke up, “I understand your concerns for your friend, but trust me, there are safety precautions in place to make sure a similar situation never occurs.” 

“Like what?” he retorted.

Kyungsoo faced the four that were staring straight at him, eyebrows furrowing as he spoke, “There will be guards stationed outside our meeting rooms while he works with us. He will also, during this period, not only be handcuffed but have grip ankle restraints in place too. Trust me, your friend would not be purposely put in harm’s way.“

Jongdae stared at Kyungsoo suspiciously before taking a seat next to the bed, “I don’t like this arrangement, but if Minseok is safe, that’s all that matters.” 

Kyungsoo raised his eyebrows as he looked between Jongdae and Minseok, “It’s good to see Minseok has very reliable and protective friends, he needs all the support he can get for a speedy recovery.” Kyungsoo turned to face Minseok before gently patting his shoulder, “I’ll head back to the office first, see you in two weeks Minseok. No less.” 

With that, Kyungsoo turned and walked straight out the door, closing it quietly behind him. As soon as he left the vicinity, Baekhyun scoffed loudly whilst folding his arms. “I can’t believe the nerve of your team leader! Hyung, have you ever thought how this job might not be  _ that _ worth it?” 

Minseok placed the board next to him gently before smiling at his friends. “I know he may seem like such an ass sometimes, but I know deep down he really cares about us.” His voice, although strained and rather hoarse, was genuine. 

“I trust him.” 


	8. Do you love him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit long, I'm so sorry for that! Hope you enjoy~ More Suho in this one and chapters to come  
> If you have any questions, I have a curiouscat that I literally just made so you can ask away ~ : https://curiouscat.me/strwberyyis

The two weeks had gone by smoothly for Minseok, with his friends constantly visiting him and bringing him food to enjoy. He was glad that he had such a strong support system, enabling him to heal much faster than usual. Jongdae would usually come in the mornings to cook for him breakfast, before leaving for his art exhibition by the time Minseok wakes up. He always found his meals kept nicely in containers kept in the fridge, with small notes labeled, “For lunch!” or “For dinner!” in Jongdae’s noticeable neat handwriting. 

Baekhyun and Sehun would visit during the day to keep Minseok company, while ensuring he took his proper medication and food, as prescribed by the doctors. Throughout the two weeks, he could feel himself getting better as the bruising near his collarbones started to fade. The once purplish green marks were now reduced to faint blue and red colour, and Minseok was starting to look like his old self again. 

As his leave was starting to come to an end, his friends started to visit him more regularly, claiming that once Minseok goes back to work, he’d be bound to forget all of them. He’d laughed them off and called his friends “dramatic” while reaching out to get another helping of food they bought him. 

Minseok also tried to get as much sleep as possible, knowing that this was the only opportunity to do so before he delved back in to work completely. Though he enjoyed his friends’ constant company, his mind couldn’t help but think about his impending work and more importantly,  _ Suho _ . For some reason, that night in Paris had left an impact on him, unable to get rid of the thoughts about him. What Suho had mentioned to him while he was coughing uncontrollably, plagued his mind, filling him with many unanswered questions. 

**

_ “Oh god, oh god, shit. I- I am so so sorry, I didn’t mean to-, I was... you- I thought you were him.” _

_ Minseok could hear a broken voice coming from behind him, stuttering as he spoke. As he positioned himself on his forearms, heaving while facing the cold cement floors, he could hear Suho at the back apologising, sounding as if he was close to tears.   _

_ Once Minseok had caught sight of his teammates running down the pavement towards him, he was already swinging back and forth into unconsciousness. The weight on his eyelids forcing his eyes shut, he rolled onto his back and leaned his head onto the floor. The last thing he remembered was Kyungsoo’s faint voice calling out to him.  _

**

_ “Wouldn’t I know what it feels like?” What was he talking about?  _

It bothered Minseok that he didn’t know what Suho was on about. He hoped that as soon as he got back to work, he would be able to get some answers from him. However, there was a feeling deep within Minseok, that felt that whatever answers he would get from him, might not be something he would want to know after all. 

\--

As soon as his two weeks leave ended, Minseok dressed as he always did to work- in a white long sleeved shirt, his navy blue tie, tapered black pants and a long beige wool coat. The weather was starting to get chillier, and Minseok figured that bringing along his coat would be the best course of action. He nicely packed his briefcase before heading out the door, reading the text message from Jongdae on how he would come visit during his lunch break. 

One foot out the office elevator door, and Minseok could already feel that all eyes were on him. His pace became faster as he landed his eyes on his office door, at the far end of the long winding corridor. There were whispers all around and Minseok couldn’t help but feel a bit self conscious about his appearance. Suddenly feeling so small, he gripped his bag tighter and continued marching towards his shared office. Minseok never liked having the main spotlight, always preferring to work in the shadows, even if it meant not gaining the recognition he deserved. Having many eyes on him made him nervous and hyper-aware of his actions and himself, making him seem a little off to the others. 

As he finally entered the office space, he found Kyungsoo rearranging the chairs to the side of the room, instead of its usual place in front of his desk. The sound of the door opening had visibly startled Kyungsoo, who in turn jumped a bit and immediately swerved his head to look at the visitor. 

“You seem- tense.”

“You would be too, if there was a wanted criminal on their way here now.” Kyungsoo walked over to the cloak hanger next to Minseok.

“So soon? I thought he wouldn’t be here until after lunch.” Minseok settled his items down at his desk, keeping away items that could be in reach of Suho. 

“Yea, I thought so too, but I guess the Heads wanted us to… bond?” 

Minseok stopped tidying up his desk midway, choosing to look at Kyungsoo with an unconvinced expression plastered across his face, “Bond? What are we? Ten? I don’t know about you, but I don’t necessarily bond with criminals.  _ Especially _ ones that I get into a physical fight with.”

Kyungsoo was just about to reply, until they both heard a commotion stirring up outside of their office. Sounds of someone raising their voice was heard and both Minseok and Kyungsoo walked towards the door to see where it was all coming from. 

“I think he’s here, I’ll lead the guards to the office. You can settle down first.” Kyungsoo ordered as he made his way out the door. 

The guards brought Suho in by roughly shoving him into the chair opposite Minseok’s desk, disregarding the fact that their actions may seriously injure the criminal. Minseok eyed the man opposite him cautiously, noting how irritated he looked with the way he was being handled. Suho’s hair was significantly neater and longer than the last time Minseok met him,  and his black roots were staring the show amidst the curly hazelnut brown hair he had back in Paris. 

He slumped in his seat, looking around the place to take in his surroundings, before landing his eyes on Kyungsoo. He had walked beside Suho’s seat, before moving to sit at the edge of the marble table, tucking his hands neatly into his pant pockets. As soon as Suho managed to meet Kyungsoo’s eyes, he slowly grinned at the man before moving his hands up to show him the handcuffs. 

“Kyungsoo? Good to see you again. I was wondering how long it would take for you to finally catch me.”

“Well, think no more. You’re here now, and you will aid us in bringing down all of your criminal friends.”

“My my Kyungsoo, so demanding…”

Minseok stared at Suho, noticing how he was refusing to meet Minseok’s eyes. What Suho mentioned to him in Paris had once again surfaced in his memory, and Minseok was starting to wonder if Suho really did get him mixed up with someone else that night. 

“Suho-” Minseok called out. 

“Junmyeon, please”

“ _ Suho,”  _ he ignored, “If you do not abide by our instructions to help us in our cases, you will face life imprisonment.”

Junmyeon’s left eyebrow cocked up, looking puzzled at something before he replied.  

“You’re not as friendly as I thought you’d be, pity. I thought we could be friends.” 

“That’s a lot of nerve coming from someone who nearly killed him.” Kyungsoo stepped in. 

“Touche” 

As time went by, things were starting to get a little more organised amongst the three of them, with Junmyeon being more compliant than before. Before they knew it, it was already lunchtime. The guards brought up a pack of catered food from prison for Junmyeon and tossed the plastic container recklessly onto the table without saying a word. The plastic lid was all steamed up and the contents of the container was barely visible. While Junmyeon cautiously peeled the lid off, Minseok and Kyungsoo stood a good feet behind him, peeking behind his back to get a look at what prison food was like. Horrible. 

The smell of cooked peas filled the room and it was unpleasant in the least. Junmyeon’s lunch - peas and baked potato, did not look appetizing at all, and even made Minseok threw up a bit in his mouth. 

“Ha ha, be disgusted all you want. Wait till I get out of here and eat decent food, I’ll be sure to have the last laugh.”

“Shut up and eat your potatoes, or we’ll ask the guards to force feed it to you.”

Junmyeon made a sound of disgust before digging in to take a bite of his food, holding his breath dramatically whilst shoving them into his mouth. As he slowly chewed the potato mixed with peas, his whole body stiffened whilst his face cringed in disgust. 

“Don’t you dare spit that out in my office, I’m warning you” Kyungsoo groaned, moving further away from the criminal.

Junmyeon swallowed his food slowly and then let out a dramatic sigh, “I think I can do that for another twenty-five times.”

“Great, I’ll get the rest of us  _ actual  _ food. Minseok, I’ll order the guards to be stationed inside the office while we get ourselves lunch. Come.”   
“Actually, I alre-”

There was a sudden soft knock on the door, followed by a faint voice calling out for Minseok. One of the guards that stood outside the door, knocked once before turning the knob for the visitor. All three men that were inside, eyed the door curiously as it slowly opened to show the unexpected stranger. 

Jongdae’s smaller built, as compared to the two imposing guards beside him, peeked out from behind the door. “Excuse me, but is Minseok he- Minseok!”

Jongdae came out from behind the door, entering Minseok’s shared office space. He carried a tote bag in hand, packed with food filled to the brim. He nodded at Kyungsoo, before noticing Junmyeon sitting at the far edge of the table, eating the standard issued meal from prison. Jongdae briefly scowled at Junmyeon before moving to place the food containers on Minseok’s desk. 

“I figured that since you both work together, I should pack you some food too. I’m sorry for my rude outburst the other day, you were just doing you job.” Jongdae neatly laid out all the warm sweet-scented food against the cool marble table. “Please accept this as my apology, Mister?”

“Doh” Kyungsoo replied warmly, “Thank you, and I understand that you were just looking out for Minseok. I appreciate that, since I wasn’t there to protect him during the mission.”

Minseok shoved his things to the side of the desk, motioning to Jongdae and Kyungsoo to settle down at the table. Jongdae took out all the packed food from his tote bag and neatly laid them across the table, handing the other two men their cutlery. 

“Come sit with us, Dae. How’s the art exhibition coming along?” 

Jongdae huffed upon hearing the question, digging his spoon into his food, “It’s been good… Until I met the most arrogant man in the world!”

“I promise you guys, I wasn’t at any art exhibition recently.” Junmyeon laughed.

The whole room fell silent as all eyes were on Junmyeon, “What? It’s a joke, geez. Tough crowd, huh?” 

Minseok shook his head lightly before resuming the conversation, “Who is this man? Have we met him before?” 

Jongdae sat in silence for a bit before answering, “No, I think I would remember him if I’ve seen him before… He’s a music producer apparently, didn’t manage to catch his name after he made me furious with what he did.”

Jongdae took another bite of his food before continuing, “So this man, comes into the art exhibition close to our lunch hour, just as we were about to close. Then he looks around for the biggest piece he could find and just straight up asks the staff to sell it to him at that instant. So the staff comes over to call me right? And I explained to him that this exhibition was still for show and we wouldn’t be selling pieces until the end of the month, after the whole event has been wrapped up.” 

“And then-” Jongdae slammed his wooden spoon down, creating a loud thud against the container, “he says that he would be out of town at the end of the month, and wishes to buy it off us now. I explain again that no, it wasn’t possible just yet, and he goes on about how he’s doing us small local artists a favour! Imagine how shocked and enraged I was to hear that!” 

Both Minseok and Kyungsoo’s jaw dropped upon hearing the last statement, in disbelief at how the situation unfolded for Jongdae. 

“Whoa, that guy was literally being an asshole-  and I know I’m one to talk. Who is he?” Junmyeon spoke up again, in hopes to join the conversation. 

Jongdae merely stared at the criminal before looking back at Kyungsoo and Minseok, “Umm, well he was tall, his hair was dyed close to a platinum blonde shade, sides were neatly shaved off and he wore this red coat that had a golden engraved word, “Loey”, around his coat sleeves. He definitely has taste, just not manners.” 

Kyungsoo was first to break the silence, throwing his head back while laughing; It threw everyone else in the room off with the sudden outburst. “I- I’m so sorry Jongdae. It’s just, I know exactly who you are talking about.” Kyungsoo explained, “That prick you were talking about was Park Chanyeol, and I’m not even going to try to apologise for his actions. But in all the years I’ve known him, never once have I ever seen him so rude to someone. It seems like you have quite the talent to bring out people’s bad side, first mine and then this man’s. Let me talk to him, I’m sure I’ll be able to bring him to a reasonable decision.” 

Jongdae frowned at Kyungsoo’s statement before nodding at him and mouthed a silent “thank you”. Minseok got out of his seat and helped Jongdae to pack up the empty food containers, walking with him to the door, still on the topic about the exhibition’s visitor. 

“If he causes you trouble, just call me alright? I’ll bring Kyungsoo and see how we can deal with him. I dislike these sort of people, you know? I don’t understand why he has got to be so rude for…” Minseok rambled off, retrieving Jongdae’s coat from the hanger for him. 

“Thank you Minseok, this was nice. We should do this more often… When you’re free, that is.” 

“I- I’ll try to free up my schedule, but you know… Work always comes up the last minute.” Minseok awkwardly laughed as he opened the door. “Thank you for the food by the way, I appreciate it, I’m sure Kyungsoo did too.”

“Anytime, see you!” Jongdae smiled at Minseok before leaving out the door, gently closing it behind him. 

Minseok stood in the middle of the room, staring blankly at the closed door. He was in a dilemma on how he should approach the topic about how he wanted distance between him and Jongdae. The both of them spending too much time with each other was just a recipe for disaster, because he knew it would only make Jongdae fall for him harder. He looked down to the carpeted floor and sighed, this was definitely the one thing he wanted to avoid, hurting Jongdae again. 

“He in love with you or something?”

Minseok’s head perked up at the sudden question directed at him, and he turned around to look at the source. 

Junmyeon leaned back against his seat, smiling lazily at Minseok, pointing to the door, “That guy, is he in love with you? He was being so obvious about it.” 

“Oh shut up, you don’t know what you’re talking about.” Minseok sighed as he walked back to his desk, rearranging his items again. 

“You’re right, but I do know emotions when I see it. And it seems like you… Don’t feel the same way?” 

“What are you? My therapist? And so what if that was the case?” 

Junmyeon shrugged before leaning his arms against his knees, looking directly at Minseok, “I would tell you to tell that straight to his face. He seems like a nice person, and nobody would want to have their feelings played with.” 

Minseok’s thumbs and forefingers gently massaged his temples, moving to sit down in his large leather armchair. “I know… I know” The whole situation about him and Jongdae has become so seemingly evident to everyone else, that the more who knew about Jongdae’s affection for Minseok, the more he would get hurt when Minseok finally turns him down. And before Minseok knew it, the whole room was silent, except for the constant ticking for the miniature clock that was placed on Minseok’s table. 

“I’m sorry”

“Sorry?”

“Yes, I’m sorry. For that night.” Junmyeon looked up at Minseok, voice becoming smaller and the cheekiness in his voice that he had throughout the day, was untraceable.

“I don’t- I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, but…” He looked around the room, suddenly avoiding eye contact with Minseok, “The anger I felt was misplaced, and I am sorry I hurt you. I never wanted any harm to come to anyone’s way.” 

The whole apology puzzled Minseok, stunned that a criminal would even apologise for his actions. “Who did you think I was?” Minseok probed on, trying to get an answer to a question he had on his mind the last few weeks. 

“That … Is not my place to say.”

“What do you me-”

The door swung open, Kyungsoo entering the room while aggressively rubbing his damp hands against his black pants. “The queue for the toilet was insane and… Suho, unfortunately, it is time for you to head back to your cold lonely cell. Goodbye.” 

Junmyeon groaned as he leaned his head back against the seat’s headrest, resisting slightly when the guards came in and gripped his bicep. As he stumbled out of the office in the grasp of the prison guards, he turned around to look at Kyungsoo and Minseok one last time. “It was fun getting to know you guys, same time tomorrow?” 

“Yes yes, whatever. See you tomorrow Suho.” Kyungsoo ushered them out the door, “and if you be cheeky with us one more time, we  _ will _ set you straight.” 

“Straight? Funny you mention that…” 

“Goodbye!” Kyungsoo shouted as he slammed the door shut, “the nerve of that man, I swear! You okay Minseok? You seem rather quiet.”

Minseok looked at Kyungsoo and thought about the brief interaction he had with Junmyeon before he had left.  _ He had apologized, but this raises more questions than before. “Not his place to say?” Is there… something bigger than him that’s keeping him from disclosing information?  _ He remembered how in Paris, Junmyeon stared at him with abject horror after fishing out his ID from his pocket. The fact that he only became hostile  _ after _ realising his identity, made him wonder if the anger outburst was due to something related to Minseok, but not him directly. 

Minseok suddenly felt that things were starting to get more complicated than he originally hoped it would be, and he knew that when he finally found out the answers, it would definitely be something he was not prepared for. He forced a smile at Kyungsoo, waving his right hand to dismiss his comment.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry about it, I’m going to be alright.”

 


	9. Sick Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the wait,, exams are coming up but i can tell you this: Starting from middle of Dec, I would be able to update waaaay more frequently. More details soon hehe. Hope you enjoy this chapter~

Minseok zoned out throughout his whole commute home, thinking back to what Junmyeon had mentioned. The way Junmyeon looked at him while he apologized, the genuine look of hurt and disappointment in himself, Minseok couldn’t shrug the image out of his mind. The night was starting to get cloudier as Minseok took to the streets of Seoul, too absorbed in his own thoughts to notice anything around him. The usual evening crowd had mysteriously disappeared from the streets, seeking shelter under nearby buildings and in cafes. And as soon as Minseok noticed this odd change, he felt it, the reason why everyone practically vanished in mere seconds. 

_ Splat _

The first drop of rain fell right on his face, making him shudder at the ice-like temperature. Minseok wiped the rain drop off his nose, looking up towards the sky to survey the weather condition. Standing still at the traffic light, Minseok felt the tension in the air that came with the pregnant pause in the atmosphere.The traffic light eventually turned green, and just as Minseok took a step onto the road, there was a sudden heavy downpour. 

Minseok immediately hugged his coat tighter against his body, and sprinted half a mile to his apartment, panting when he finally reached the doorstep of the building. His hair was wet, and sticking against his forehead while rain droplets dripped from the ends. He brushed his palm against his head and pushed the hair back, combing through wet hair to get rid of the rainwater that was dripping all over him. He held his briefcase against his chest and took the elevator up to his floor, patting down his clothes to remove any excess rain water that were threatening to seep through his long beige coat. 

As he opened the door to his home, he shrugged off the coat and simply tossed it into the laundry basket, making a mental note to wash it later, before moving towards the bedroom. The room was just as he left it, with the bed sheets made and everything in place. The cool atmosphere that his room had, had suddenly made him feel way too tired all of a sudden, opting to drop all his belongings at the foot of his bed and drag himself to the toilet for a quick wash up before dinner. He was hoping that a hot shower would help to ease all his stress away, as well as warm himself up after coming home drenched from the rain. 

He turned on the shower head and rested his head against the cold tiles, once in a while bringing his palm up to test the temperature of the water. His entire body was covered with goosebumps, hair standing from the cold temperature in the bathroom. His mind blanked as he slowly closed his eyes, trying his best to relax after such a long day. The gentle sound of the rain hitting the bathroom’s windows was like a melody in his ears, allowing him to finally rest his body against the wall. 

After deciding that the water was finally warm enough to shower in, he stepped under the shower head and began washing his hair. He thought about the events that happened in the previous week, and almost instantaneously, he thought about  _ Junmyeon _ . 

Minseok couldn’t understand why he has been thinking about him more, over the past month. At first he shrugged it off as being too invested in the case and trying to decipher what Junmyeon meant every time they had a chance to talk. However, every time Minseok tries to go on about his day, the memory of Junmyeon smiling after telling a poorly-timed joke pops into his head. 

“He’s just handsome and funny that’s all” He pouts,”This is so inappropriate to think of him like this. He’s a criminal, for heaven’s sake!” Minseok shook his head wildly.

Immediately after mumbling those words to himself, however, the water from the shower turned ice cold, giving Minseok a near heart attack at the sudden change in temperature. 

Minseok let out a string of curses as he ran out of the bathroom, body trembling and his teeth audibly chattering. He wrapped himself with a towel, trying to get some semblance of warmth while he walked out to his bedroom to get his clean clothes. As soon as he got dressed in his usual nightwear, shorts with cartoon cat face print on them and a soft black cotton tee, he walked towards his large queen sized bed, not bothering to make himself dinner, deciding to just head straight to bed instead. 

The tiles were cold, making Minseok wish he had chosen wooden flooring over marble ones, and with every step Minseok took, his feet would cringe at the cool temperature. To Minseok’s annoyance, the bed sheets were cold as well, after not being used for the whole day. He quickly undid the sheets and took his usual spot in the middle of the soft bed and practically cocooned himself in blankets, hoping that it would help in warming him despite the past unfortunate attempts in doing so. 

As he finally allowed his body to relax, Minseok could feel his eyelids getting heavier, sleep slowly taking over him while the sounds of the rain echoed beside him. His windows were open, and even without the fan turned on, the room had maintained it cool temperature. As the thunder rumbled in the gloomy sky, Minseok slept comfortably in his bed, snoring throughout the night.

\--

_ Awful. _

Awful was one way Minseok could describe his morning. He woke up late to the sounds of the birds that were perched on his window ledge singing their lungs out. That rude awakening caused him to be moodier than most mornings, and the fact that he was starting to feel his throat becoming sore, made it even more unpleasant. Before walking out the door, Minseok stared at his medicine cabinet for a mere second, considering if he should take one dosage of flu medication before he left for work. “Better safe than sorry,” he grumbled, dragging himself into the kitchen and immediately downing a shot of faint green liquid, that quick frankly tasted like  _ shit _ to him. He let out the loudest groan and returned the bottle to the shelf before running out the door, forgetting to bring along his beige coat that was still hanging over the laundry basket from the night before. 

Minseok felt that his commute to work was way longer than usual,  _ but that’s how it usually is when you’re late right? _ Minseok checked his watch every few minutes, hoping time would go slower for him. He had a meeting with the Director that morning, and it practically  _ killed _ him to think that he was going to be late and make a bad impression of himself. Kyungsoo was oddly unavailable that morning, seeing that he was always the first one in the office everyday, which meant that Minseok had to attend the briefing for the allocation of new cases instead. 

As Minseok neared his office building, he could feel his head starting to get more woozy. He would occasionally fan himself with this hand, blaming the dizziness on the fact that he had missed two meals; last night’s dinner and this morning’s breakfast. As he finally sat down in the conference room with several other detectives, Minseok could feel his body rapidly heating up, muscles aching all over. He was only paying attention to half the points that the Director was sharing about, mind more focused on staying awake and not sneezing every few minutes. There was a sickening feeling building up inside Minseok, one that he knew all too well; he was falling sick. 

Disassociating almost half the time, Minseok was rather surprised when everyone else got up from their seats to retrieve their allocated case files. He hurriedly snatched the file that was assigned to him, the thinnest of the lot, and walked out the already empty conference room. It felt like the whole world was spinning, and Minseok thought it was a goddamn miracle that he even made it back to his shared office space in one piece. He looked over at the clock that hung over his ridiculously large bookcase, and noted that he still had a few minutes before Kyungsoo and Junmyeon were expected to arrive. He tried his hardest to recall the points made by the Director earlier, whilst flipping through the five-page case file. If he was going to give a briefing to Kyungsoo and that  _ criminal _ , he had better be good at it. 

Just a minute before nine o’clock, Kyungsoo and Junmyeon (that was unsurprisingly surrounded by his usual guards), had both strolled into the office space, greeting Minseok in a sing-song manner before taking their respective seats. 

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t attend the briefing with you this morning, I had a few errands to run, but with this in your hands I know there’s nothing to worry about.” Kyungsoo smiled genuinely at Minseok. Without uttering a word, Minseok simply nodded and took out a piece of tissue from the tissue packets he took with his before he left, and held it against his nose. 

“I met with the Director earlier,”  Minseok sniffled as he looked at Kyungsoo and Junmyeon, “He passed me a new file, said it was a new case he wanted us to be tasked to.” Minseok gently placed a rather thin file on the table and reached over to the packet of tissues in his pocket. 

“He also mentioned that you’ve been seen,” Minseok sneezed loudly and immediately pressed the tissue against his nose,”uh- seen working with him before?” Minseok asked Junmyeon, his eyes bore straight into him, “So I say, you better help us, or else” Minseok sneezed again, eyes tightly shut as he tried to shake off the sickening feeling in his head,” or we  _ will  _ make your life here a living hell.” Minseok pushed the file towards the two of them, blowing his nose in a very awkward manner. 

Kyungsoo and Junmyeon shared a glance at each other and then back at Minseok, noticing how awful he looked. Minseok’s hair was completely disheveled, shirt buttoned all the way to the top and there was multiple used tissues peeking out from his pockets, all around his tapered pants. 

“The only living hell you’re putting me through is passing me a germ infested case file.” Junmyeon remarked, looking at the documents cautiously, “I don’t wanna go back to my cell today with a flu virus, prison and being sick at the same time is the worst combo anyone could ask for.” 

Minseok felt the back of his eyes burning while feeling cold all over, he hugged himself to hopefully retain some heat and stared at Junmyeon with unfocused eyes.

“Shut up, and I’m not s-sick!” Minseok argued, visibly shivering at how cold the room was. Kyungsoo walked over to Minseok and guided him to sit down, bringing out a new set of tissues for him to you. 

“I’ll tell you what, I’ll head downstairs to get you warm soup, and you can brief us afterwards, alright?” He walked over to the clock hanger and removed his coat from the rack, making a beeline for the door next, “I’ll get the guards to stay inside the office with you and Suho while I get you some food.”

Minseok was at this point barely registering the fact that Kyungsoo left the room and that the guards had come in instead. His head was pounding and he felt like he was feeling extremely hot and cold at the same time. 

“You look...Really bad. Do you not have a jacket?” Minseok barely heard the question before he slowly turned to Junmyeon. He moaned out a “no” to the criminal, before leaning his head all the way back, against the wall behind him. 

There was some shuffling, along with a faint, “I’m just gonna give him this jeez stop holding m- This is harassment I swear.” Followed by a huge warm jacket being draped over his body. 

“I hate it when I fall sick, and I really wish you would just go home, to spare us all this agony.” Junmyeon clapped his hands together, leaning further into his seat. 

“Y-You’re just saying that so that when I leave, you- you could escap-”  _ Achoo “ _ escape!” 

Junmyeon threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh at that statement, smiling so genuinely at Minseok, “I’m flattered you think so highly of me. I may be good, but I can’t escape a government building filled with people that easily, especially when I have guards built like the hulk that follow my every move.” 

Minseok turned his head slowly to look at the guards that were standing at attention in front of the huge oak bookshelf next to Junmyeon’s chair. He let out a scoff while smiling at how Junmyeon described his guards. 

The next half an hour or so was hell for Minseok, as he could feel the build up of phlegm in his nose. He would continue to work despite his head suddenly feeling way too heavy, and would often accidentally drop items beside his desk. 

“I know you’re like dedicated to your job and all, heck I’m like that too, but you really need to rest. Don’t worry, I’ll pinkie promise you I’ll still be here once you’re better.” Junmyeon teased, and sat on the edge of the desk next to Minseok’s seat. 

“Are you still cold?” He asked, noticing how Minseok would still tug at the prison issued windbreaker and hugged himself tighter. Seeing that Minseok could only give a small nod, Junmyeon rubbed his hands quickly, getting some warmth from the friction before cupping Minseok’s cheeks. 

“Detective, you- Hey! What did I say? Harassment I swear! I’m helping him, why-” Through bleary eyes, Minseok could see Junmyeon being pulled away from his arms and shoved right back in his chair, protesting at whatever the guards were doing to him. 

“Guards-” Minseok moaned once again, “It’s fine, he won’t hurt me as long as you’re here.” 

“See? Thank you! Jeez, can’t believe a criminal has some heart to be kind as well?” Junmyeon continued muttering to himself before he took his place back in front of Minseok and began rubbing his hands together again. After a few seconds of doing so, he reached out to cup Minseok’s cheeks, feeling the cold soft skin under his palms. 

“This should help. You’re really cold, almost like you’re dead. You  _ really _ need to rest Detective?”

“Minseok” Minseok replied, leaning more into Junmyeon’s palm, while his eyelids threatened to close. “The medicine I took this morning is reaaaaaaal drowsy. I oops-” 

Minseok’s phone fell out of his pocket and onto the carpeted floors, next to his chair. He was starting to look more out of it, visibly trying to keep his eyes wide open and on Junmyeon. His hands moved up and held Junmyeon’s wrists, staring at him with pure curiosity. The way Junmyeon was treating him now, with such care, holding his face as if he was a puppy, made Minseok’s heart skip a beat unknowingly. 

Junmyeon continued to hold Minseok’s cheeks in his hand, mindlessly rubbing his thumb against Minseok smooth cheeks. This act, so  _ domestic,  _ made Minseok felt sleepier, gently drifting off into a gentle slumber. As Junmyeon noticed that Minseok’s head would bob down while dozing off, he gently adjusted Minseok to lean against the backrest and sleep in a more comfortable position. 

“Why are you doing this for me?” Minseok mumbled as he peeked at Junmyeon, who was walking back to his seat opposite him. 

“You ...” He looked like he was pondering over his next few words carefully, “You remind me of someone dear to me, and I know how awful being sick with no one to look after you feels.”

Minseok opened his mouth, opting to say something else before gently shaking his head, “Thank you Junmyeon.” He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes before dozing off within minutes.

Kyungsoo came back soon after, hands carrying plastics filled with food and medicine for Minseok to feel better. He settled the items on the table, pushing files and stationery to the side to make space for the food. However, in doing so, he accidentally pushed their new case file off the table, causing all the papers to fall all over the floor, by Junmyeon’s chair. Kyungsoo ran around the table, and with the help of Junmyeon, picked up the papers and slot them back into the case folder.

“I’ve never seen a case file so thin before, is your new perpetrator a new criminal or something?” Junmyeon asked, taking the file from Kyungsoo to place onto the table, “Who is this guy anyway?” 

Kyungsoo turned his back towards Junmyeon, walking around the large marble table to wake Minseok out, who was currently snoring in his armchair. “I don’t know, and frankly I don’t care about that right now.” Kyungsoo crouched next to Minseok and just as he was about to reach out to Minseok, he heard a small thud against the floor. 

He straightened his back just enough to peek over the desk, looking at Junmyeon with his plastered annoyed expression. “Did you just drop the damn file again?” As he stood up to look at Junmyeon more carefully, he noticed the man’s hands were trembling, eyes widened in horror, staring at the file on the ground.

“Quit playing around Junmyeon, we don’t have time for your antics.”

“Kyungsoo, It- It’s  _ him.” _

Kyungsoo’s eyes immediately widened at the two words that Junmyeon had barely managed to utter. It felt like the air in the room stilled as the two men stared at each other, “It’s too soon Kyungsoo, what are we going to do?”

Kyungsoo took a deep breath and looked back at Minseok, with a slightly shaky voice, he said, “It doesn’t look like we have a choice.”


	10. Mother

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: None
> 
> This one is short but it's to delve a bit more into Minseok's past :)

Minseok woke up in an unfamiliar room, feeling much better than he did before. His head was no longer pounding and his nose weren’t blocked anymore. He breathed deeply as he sat up on the soft bed, surrounded by cotton sheets and blankets. He was still clutching onto Junmyeon’s jacket though, realising that it was far too big for his small frame, that he practically swam in it. He ran his fingers over the nylon material before stopping at the sleeves that had “S-001” printed on the edges, indicating Junmyeon’s cell number.

The thought of him wearing Junmyeon’s clothes made his cheeks turn red and Minseok had to practically slap himself out of it. Realising that his fingertips were no longer cold anymore, he was thankful that Junmyeon draped his jacket over him, making him so much warmer than he originally was.

He got off the bed, feeling extremely groggy, and tried his hardest to think back to how he ended up in this strange room. The walls were all black and the colour of the little furniture the room had, were all white. The blinds were pulled shut but there was still sunlight peeking through the edges.

The door opened just as Minseok was about to open the blinds, “Minseok? Good to see you’re up, I thought you were in a coma or something.”

“Kyungsoo? Where am I?” Minseok’s eyes winced as the light from behind Kyungsoo shined straight on his face,”Is this your place? It’s really dark in here.”

Kyungsoo opened the door fully and walked over to Minseok, holding a tray of food. “Yes, this is my guest room. I woke you up in office to eat and take your medication, but as soon as you finished it, you fell straight back to sleep. I wanted to bring you back to your place but your apartment building had some keypad password that I couldn’t decipher, so I brought you here. I hope you’re feeling better.”

“I am,” Minseok sat down on the bed and dug into the food, “Thank you.”

“You’re my partner, I have to take care of you, don’t I? It’s part of the job scope I suppose.”

The two of them chuckled as they took a seat on the bed, ready to dig in to their individual meals.

“I hope you don’t mind chicken soup and porridge, I didn’t want to cause more discomfort by serving you the usually spicy food that I cook” Kyungsoo smiled, chopsticks digging into his own bowl of ramen noodles.

Minseok looked down at his bowl, stomach immediately grumbling at the sight of food. Though Minseok could barely smell the chicken porridge that Kyungsoo made for him, but he could definitely see how well prepared it was. The porridge had a consistent texture to it, topped with chopped coriander and minced chicken, along with half boiled eggs spread around the bowl. The food was still warm and it helped in warming up his hands, as he brought the bowl closer to him to take a bite.

_The taste._

The taste of the meal, was something that shook Minseok right to his core. There was something about the food that gave him an intense nostalgic feeling. The simplicity of the food, yet it being so delicious, was something that reminded Minseok of his mother. When he was younger, everytime Minseok fell sick, his mother would make him porridge that tasted similar to the one he was eating at that moment.

“Is something wrong? Is the food too bland? Argh, I knew I should’ve known to put more sauces in while cooking.”Kyungsoo groaned, “Give it to me, I’ll add more flavour for you.”

Minseok pulled the bowl closer towards him, moving it out of the way of Kyungsoo’s hands. “No, it’s good, really good. It just- It just reminded me of my mother that’s all.”

Kyungsoo’s ears perked up at that statement, “my cooking reminds you of your mother’s? That’s the sweetest compliment anyone has ever said to me,” he chuckled.

“Yeah, she-” Minseok sniffled, “She was a pretty good cook too.”

“What happened to her? You’ve never mentioned anything about her before.”

“She died a long time ago, I barely remember it. Shot to death while protecting me.”

“Minseok,” Kyungsoo paused, “I’m so sorry I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay, like I said, it was a long time ago. I was raised by my uncle afterwards, but sometimes I really do miss her.”

“I am really sorry for bringing this up Minseok, I’m sure she would be very proud of how far you’ve come.” Kyungsoo reached out and gently patted Minseok on his shoulder, looking at him with a reassuring smile.

Minseok smiled, digging his spoon into his bowl again, “I sure hope so, I joined the force to avenge her unjust death. Apparently the killer was never found after that night, but my uncle- He mentioned that the killer was some underground criminal drug lord. I don’t know who that is, but after our current perpetrator is put behind bars, I’ll be sure to take that monster down for good.”

“Underground criminal drug lord? We’ve had our fair share of drug lords around here, how would you know which one is the right one?”

“My uncle, uh he mentioned that he has some sort of tattoo on near his ankle on his right foot, I suppose it’s a type of affiliation tattoo. I know we can’t possibly check every single criminal for a sun tattoo on their ankles, but I guess it’s a good start?” Minseok was lost in thought, trying to remember any information that his uncle may have possibly given him.

Kyungsoo’s head shot up as Minseok finished his statement, “Sun tattoo? How does your uncle know about that tattoo though? If he was able to see body markings on your mother’s murderer, meaning to say he was… At the crime scene?”

Minseok choked a bit on his porridge before shaking his hand, “No, no,” Minseok coughed, “My whole family has met him before, and that’s because the murderer is my _biological father_.”

Kyungsoo’s eyes widened the tenfold as Minseok continued speaking, “We don’t really know what his real name is though, he always went by an alias. But Uncle mentioned how he was always power hungry and neglected my mother and I to rise up the ranks in his criminal group.”

Kyungsoo’s heart was pounding heavily against his chest, feeling his mouth all too dry all of a sudden, “But your surname? The criminal would be a Kim too, right?”

“Oh, no, I took Uncle’s surname after they adopted me, saying it would be safer to change my name in case my father were to come looking for me down the road. But I kept my birth name, it would’ve been what my mother wanted, hence my current name Kim Minseok.”

_Kim Minseok_  
_Kim Minseok_  
**_Minseok_ **

The name rang in Kyungsoo’s ears, feeling way too uncomfortable all of a sudden, he is Minseok, _The_ Minseok.

Kyungsoo instinctively held Minseok’s hand and held it against his chest, “Minseok, you are safe here. And whatever happens, I always need you to trust me, please.”

Minseok frowned at the sudden gesture, but shrugged it off anyway. “That’s nice of you Kyungsoo, and I’ll always trust you. Always.”

The reply made Kyungsoo flinch a bit, and he was thankful that there was not so much lightning in the room for Minseok to have caught on to that. Kyungsoo grabbed the now empty bowls and stacked them on top of one another, shoving a glass of water into Minseok’s hands.

“You better rest now, Minseok. You know I can’t handle Suho alone tomorrow.” He chuckled as he walked towards the door, “and thank you for opening up to me, I know it is difficult, but together we would take down that murderer and avenge your mother.”

Minseok merely smiled at Kyungsoo, eyes feeling too heavy all of a sudden, muttering out a soft ‘ _thank you_ ’, before finally allowing himself to rest.

Kyungsoo closed the door behind him, taking one last glance at Minseok’s relaxed figure on his guest bed. As he shut the door softly, he leaned his head against the frame and sighed, eyebrows knitted together.

_Kim Minseok, you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. There is a big storm coming, and I’ll pray for your safety._


End file.
